Toffees stick to the plan while Rockets and Sparklers fight out a draw.

Monday Night Tennis and it was business as usual for the Pumpkins and Toffees with both teams recording victories in their usual fashion. The Pumpkins stormed to victory 65-31 over the Wizards while the Toffees ground out another tight win with a 56-40 over the Conkers.

The Wizards had hoped to carry the confidence of last Mondays first win into this clash but like other teams before them they found the Pumpkins in smashing form and lost six matches out of the eight played on the night. The opening match was expected to be close with Innes Redmond and Helen Cooper hoping to overcome Jimmy Renfrew and Jenny Humphries for the Pumpkins but it was the number one Pumpkins who strolled through 10-2 setting the tone for the rest of the tie. The only resistance the Pumpkins met all night came from Gareth Armstrong who tried to hold back the tide winning both his matches on the night, firstly with Bennie Sheridan in the mixed doubles and then John Quinn in the men's doubles. However, all other matches went convincingly the way of the high scoring Pumpkins with Jenny Humphries securing a massive 20 games closely followed by Vanessa McBrien taking 19 games.

In complete contrast, Monday night's first tie between the Toffees and the Conkers threw up a series of eight cliff hanger contests with only one match decided by more than two games. Crucially it was the Toffees who proved toughest, holding on for wins in six matches. In a great team performance all eight players scored at least 12 games with team captain Paul Lendrum leading from the front with 7-5 and 8-4 victories in the two top tier matches. Two further victories ensued from James Wilson securing his mixed doubles tie with partner Mary Griffin 7-5 and following this up with what proved to be the crucial victory winning his men's doubles tie with partner Matt Dillon 9-3 over Stephen Kettyles and Kieran Hannan. Despite almost every match going to the wire the Toffees ability across the whole team to grind out close wins left them with their biggest winning margin yet of 16 games and left the shell shocked Conkers wondering what more they need to do to win their first match.. This 56-40 victory leaves the Toffees as the only unbeaten team in the Monday night pool but they will need an uncharacteristic high scoring win against the Bonfires next Monday if they are to overtake the Pumpkins who don't play next week but who currently lead the table by 65 games.

Wednesday night had close rivals the Rockets and the Sparklers vying to establish outright possession of the second qualifying place in the group with only 3 games separating the teams going into tonight's tie. And it was to remain at 3 games as both teams traded blows throughout the match. The top tier match saw Steven Miller and Josie Gillen for the Rockets taking on Steven's coach Matthew McGann and stand in sub Sonja Hateboor in the opening mixed doubles and it was the young gun who was to take the spoils, winning by the narrowest margin 7-5. With the next two mixed doubles finishing six games apiece it was down to regular pairing Lisa Greaves and Brian Donaldson to get the Sparklers back on even terms at the halfway stage which they duly managed with a close fought 7-5 victory over Rockets captain Roisin O'Connell and late call up Seamus O'Connell.

First result in from the ladies doubles saw Josie Gillen and substitute on the night Leonie Madigan secure a comfortable 10-2 success and it looked like the Rockets had made the vital breakthrough with an eight game cushion. However Brian Donaldson immediately stepped up to the plate with a 10-2 men's doubles victory with his partner Martin Hamblin to again level the scores and when Lisa Greaves and Bennie Sheridan fought out a 6-6 tie with Roisin O'Connell and Bridie McCaffrey everything rested on the tier 1 men's doubles. All eyes switched to court one where coach Matthew and his student Steven again faced off this time with respective partners Sergiy Gluskchenko and Derek Elliott and with all four players fighting for every point the watching gallery was given a feast of hard hitting tennis. As in his earlier mixed doubles Steven was playing some of his best ever tennis and with no quarter asked or given the marathon match ended in an amazing 6-6 draw, the fourth of the night. Such was the importance and competitive nature of the tennis that Derek suffered a very heavy fall on the very last point straining in vain to win the match and the overall tie for the Rockets. This left the overall result at 48 games apiece and the two team captains Brenda Davis for the Sparklers and Roisin O'Connell afterwards agreed that the draw fairly reflected the competitive with both captains wishing Derek a full and speedy recover from his earlier nasty fall.

The closing match of the night had hot favourites the Firecrackers, currently unbeaten and well clear at the top of the pool, against bottom of the pool and winless Bangers. After winning their previous encounter 66-30 this was expected to be another opportunity for the Firecrackers to add to their mounting points tally. However, the Bangers had other ideas and after drawing the opening match in the tie 6-6 apiece they recorded two superb victories in the middle mixed matches. After a 7-5 victory for the Bangers Sean Bogue and stand in Sonja Hateboor, against the more fancied Firecracker pairing of Hugh Maguire and Andrea Crawford along with an equally impressive 7-5 victory for Keith Miller and Sheila Colville over the very experienced Allen Reynolds playing with Maxine Leary it looked like the Bangers would carry a lead into the second group of four doubles matches. However this reckoned without the silky spin of Neville Crawford who partnered by Mary Davidson came to the Firecrackers rescue with a resounding 9-3 victory in the final mixed doubles pairings leaving the tie 25-23 in favour of the firecrackers at the halfway mark.

With no match wins in the league so far it might have been expected that the Bangers would now go out with a whimper. However this was not the case as head Bangers Davy Thompson and Sean Bogue discovered their tennis boots and outplayed the Firecrackers top pairing of John Griffin and Hugh Maguire, 9-3. A tie in the ladies top match kept the Bangers in front by four but as in the mixed it was Neville who was to prove the difference winning his men's doubles tie 8-4 with Allen Reynolds. Again it was all down to the last match and despite the best efforts of Sheila Colville and Ruth Elliott to secure the Bangers first win it was the Firecrackers Maxine Leary and Mary Davidson who prevailed winning 8-4 and giving the Firecrackers an overall 50-46 win.

While still propping up the table this was a performance that can hopefully get the Bangers season out of first gear and although overtaking the unbeaten Firecrackers may well be beyond them at this stage they are still within reach of the Rockets and Sparklers in the fight for the second qualifying place.

Standings after week 4 with the top two to qualify from each group are:

Monday Nights: Pumpkins 226 games (4 matches played), Toffees 161, Bonfires 149, Wizards 117 and Conkers 115 (all 3 matches played)

Wednesday Night: Firecrackers 233 games, Rockets 189, Sparklers 186, Bangers 160 (All 4 matches played)