Melbourn closing in on Cambs Squash League title after success over St Neots

They beat third-placed St Neots 17-6 and with rivals Ely suffering an unexpected defeat at Cambridge, Melbourn are now four points clear at the top of the table.

They also have a game in hand, three matches left compared to Ely's two.

Ed Aspelling got them off to a fine start against St Neots with a 3-1 win, which included a perfect 15-0 score in the second game.

Skipper Mark Oppen continued that on with a fairly straight-forward 3-0 success.

Kate Bradshaw made an excellent start against a very tall and hard-hitting opponent and led 13-7 in the first game but slipping to defeat on a tie-break.

The St Neots player then wrapped up a 3-0 win and while the score didn't reflect the closeness of the match, Vinod Duraikan's 3-2 did and it took all of the Melbourn man's tenacity, fitness and will to win to edge his former Welsh masters international.

That left Matt Sampson to wrap up the victory with a 3-0 success.

Oppen said: "St Neots are a difficult side to beat but the team delivered another excellent win that maintains our league position."

The seconds had a close encounter with Cambridge thirds, going down 3-2 in strings.

The two winners for Melbourn came in the first string, Jan Brynjolffssen recovering from losing the first game to win 3-1, and second string where Liam Murphy played some of his best squash this season, coming from 7-1 down in the first game to win 3-1.

Jamie Ware lost 3-2 after leading 2-1 and there was a rare reverse for Thomas Higginson who won the opening game but lost 3-1.

The other game saw Colm O’Gorman downed 3-0.

Second-team skipper Roger Woodfield said: "This really was a close contest. Jan and Liam got us into a strong position but Thomas and Colm were up against very strong opposition.

"The match turned on Jamie’s game and he made a great effort but was narrowly beaten 3-2.

"We were naturally disappointed to lose but, as always, we gave it our best shot."