Much-welcome cup joy for Biggleswade

Biggleswade recorded a much-welcome 17-6 victory in the Hertfordshire Senior Cup at home to Letchworth.

With both teams without a league win this season something had to give in the first round of the cup.

Biggleswade, for the first time this season, were able to field their promotion winning side from last season and Paul Hunt at number five got them off to a winning start against Mark Slaney.

Hunt moved into a comfortable 2-0 lead (15-5, 15-13) before Slaney came back winning the third after a tie-break 16-14, and the fourth 15-11.

In the decider Hunt played an excellent game to win 15-6.

At string four Simon Gray faced Chris Hunt and came through in straight games (15-11, 16-14, 15-6).

Skipper Dan Easton at string three lost the first game to Steve Morgan (15-12) but then powered to a 3-1 victory winning the next three games (15-10, 15-4, 15-11) to seal victory for Biggleswade.

Owen Ledger at string two also had a straight games victory (15-13, 15-10, 16-14) against Phil Jenkins.

Jay Ledger at number one faced Nathan Derrick and having lost the first two games 15-6 and 15-10 played well in the third to take it to a tie-break but to no avail, losing that game 16-14.

The win puts Biggleswade through to face Berkhamsted 1in the next round. With Berkhamsted being in a league above Biggleswade the team will have their work cut out to repeat last year’s feat of making the cup finals.

However Biggleswade fell to a 17-4 defeat against Luton & Dunstable in the Bedfordshire League.

Biggleswade travelled to Luton having broken their duck for the season the previous week with a comprehensive victory against Mowsbury.

Skipper Martin Wright, stepping up to number two, faced the hard hitting Aamir Jafri and struggled to come to terms with his opponent’s unorthodox style losing in straight games (15-10, 15-13, 15-11).

Following a late call up Chris Moss made his debut for the season at string 5 against Matt Carey.

To the surprise of his teammates Moss completed a straight games win (15-13, 15-12, 15-6) to level the match.

Jimmy Hart at number four faced Carl Bates and struggled to get going in the first game losing 15-7.

Hart took the second to a tie break before losing 16-14 and then lost the match in a close third game 15-13.

Rich Anthony at string three lost the first game 15-10 to Scot Adam before levelling the match with a 15-11 win in the second.

With both games containing a number of long rallies it looked as though Anthony had worn his opponent down but it was not to be with Adam finding the energy to take both the next two games 15-11 to seal victory for LDSC1.

At number one Tony Rumbold faced Andrew Shaw. Shaw displayed remarkable tenacity in returning the ball and despite Rumbold playing well took the first two games, 15-12 and 15-13.

The efforts of these two games left Rumbold with little left in the tank and Shaw closed out the match with a comfortable 15-6 win in the third game.

In the next game Biggleswade are at home to David Lloyd 1.