Melbourn first team began the second half of their Cambs Division One campaign with a tough 20-2 defeat to Portugal Place CUSRC.

The home side had their strongest possible side out, but it was not enough to avoid a big loss.

All bar opener Matt Sampson were beaten 3-0 as Melbourn struggled.

Sampson managed a respectable 3-2 defeat to grab two points from the evening.

In contrast, Melbourn 2nds made a bright start to the New Year with a convincing 19-5 win over Comberton 2nds in Division Three.

Michael Easton and Gareth Jones won their respective matches 3-0 to put Melbourn into a 2-0 advantage.

Sandwiched between those wins was a 3-1 victory for Paul Heath in his first match of the season.

There was slight disappointment as Ian Blows was beaten in a fifth game tiebreak, but skipper Matt Walker made sure he led by example, taking his match 3-1 and with it, the match.

Meanwhile, the absence of two regular players made life tough for Melbourn Ladies as they were knocked out of the Portway Perpetual Cup at the Quarter-Final stage via a 5-0 whitewash defeat to Cambridge.

Melbourn were missing two regulars, which forced players to move up the order; Roberta Griggs (5), on her seasonal debut and Ruth Sturgess both struggled and lost 3-0. Lucy Robinson (3) looked like going the same way, but then recovered from well behind late in game 3 to steal it. She backed that up by winning the fourth, but then ran out of steam and lost 3-2.

With the result of the match settled, the top two strings were dead rubbers. In those Lynne Hays (2) and Sam Pluck (1) also fell 3-0.