SPRINGFIELD A continued their impressive start to the season with their third full points win of the season after a 30-5 victory over Red Triangle.

With Park District’s match against Budmouth C called off due to an injury, Springfield had the chance to put some daylight between themselves and Park.

Eddie Chapman scored three of the Portlander’s five points with Tony Reed notching up the other two in a fairly one-sided affair.

Thomas Babler has still only lost one set in his five matches this season and looks the player to beat.

The only other match in Division One this week saw YMCA record their first win of the season in a 24-13 win over Colliton X.

Brian Hansford secured a full nine points for YMCA with three hard-fought wins which included coming from 2-1 down against Colliton’s Mick Hogan (8) to win 15-13 in a nail-biting decider.

Hansford was ably supported by Ken Brake and John Cox who both hit six points each.

Springfield B still top Division Two despite suffering defeat for the first time this season.

Shipton Gorge B inflicted the defeat with a closely-fought 19-18 victory in a match that swung one way then the other all evening.

Derek Wheeler and Peter Billingham got Shipton off to a good start but then Chris Whitefield beat Brian Cammell to get Springfield back in it.

Billingham and Cammell then extended Shipton’s lead before Whitefield and Paul Manvell brought Springfield into contention again.

The crucial tie was the final singles match where Whitefield secured his full nine points by beating Billingham.

However, Billingham picked up a set to give Shipton an unassailable four-point lead going into the doubles.

Springfield C leapfrogged All Saints in beating them with a very closely-contested 25-16 win.

In a long evening, all but one of the singles ties went to at least four sets, with Springfield’s Steve Rook’s 3-2 win over Ben Hannigan and the students’ Hector Knight’s victory over Steve Rockett by the same score the highlights.

Hannigan (6) fought back from two sets down to eventually lose 11-9 to Rook in the fifth.

Rook went on to take nine points.

Knight (5) also fought back from two sets down against Rockett (4) but managed to sneak over the line with a confident 11-3 success in the decider.

The local derby between Preston’s C and A teams went the distance and wasn’t decided until the final doubles match.

Dave Clegg top scored on the night despite ending up on the losing team. He bagged three victories including an impressive straight-sets win over previously undefeated Simon Green (6).

Derrick Shilliday was the star for Preston A with a very solid eight points.

The two points scored by Clegg in his defeat in the final singles match of the night levelled up the scores at 17-17, and after that he teamed up with Green for a 3-0 success to secure a 20-17 victory.

A fourth successive victory sees Shipton Gorge Youth still atop Division Three.

This week was a tougher test though and they beat Pilgrims B 19-16 in a close encounter.

All three of Shipton’s players, Patrick Harper, Jonah Corren and James Noonan, scored equally with six points each.

It was Barry Thomas of Pilgrims who scored a full nine points on the night with three straight-sets wins, but it wasn’t enough to stop the youngsters.

STEPS M sit in second place after their 26-11 win over Springfield D.

In a week where it showed that strength in depth is required to win matches, it was David Moth of defeated Springfield who top-scored with a full nine points.

His three wins were their only ones on the night with Richard Wood (8), Mike Hall (7) and Mick Hogben (8) all scoring well for STEPS.

Budmouth E secured their second victory with a 21-19 victory over winless Preston D.

April Heasman continued her good form, although she had a great tussle with treasurer Malcolm Smith, who came from two sets down to draw level at 2-2 before winning a tense final set 11-8.

Smith also had a close match with Erin Stow but this time the situation was reversed.

Smith went 2-0 up but some powerful forehands from Stow brought it back to 2-2. Smith held his nerve at the end to scrape home 11-9 in the fifth.

The Budmouth girls were leading 18-17 with the doubles to play and lost the first two legs.

But it was their turn to claw themselves back into the match and win the last three legs to ensure an overall 21-19 victory.

All results, fixtures and averages can be found at ttleague.co.uk