DROITWICH C have tightened their grip on the Division Four East title after a narrow 6-4 win away to Barnt Green B in the Herefordshire and Worcestershire Men’s Winter League on Sunday.
The third-placed hosts went down in straight sets in the opening rubber when Spa’s Neil Bates and Jonathan Moran swept aside David Grinnell and Hammad Ahmad 6-2, 6-4.
A third-set tiebreak was needed in the second match between Green’s Paul Gordon and Chris Linsell and the visitors Kevin Hodges and Philip Walton, a 6-3, 3-6, 7-6 victory in favour of the hosts.
Droitwich hit back immediately, when Hodges and Walton beat Grinnell and Ahmad 6-4, 3-6, 7-6 in another three-setter.
It proved a crucial moment, as Droitwich guaranteed the bulk of the points in spite of Bates and Moran’s 7-6, 6-3 loss against Gordon and Linsell.
Elsewhere in the league, fifth-placed David Lloyd Bromsgrove B have closed the gap to the top four after a convincing 8-2 rout of Stourbridge C.
The away side were emphatic in the two opening rubbers, winning both in straight sets.
Richard Garbett and Martyn Langston dispatched of Stour’s Andrew Eaton and Toby McCole 6-3, 6-4 in the first, while Paul Farmer and Thomas Griffiths had few problems against Christopher Teuwen and Christian Lewis in the second – winning 6-1, 6-2.
The hosts’ brought themselves back into contention when Eaton and McCole enacted a 6-3, 6-2 defeat of Farmer and Griffiths, but were unable to rescue the game after Teuwen and Lewis went down 6-2, 6-1 to Garbett and Langston in the final match.
Fourth-placed Stourbridge are two points in front of DL Bromsgrove on 22 points.
