Division 2 reached the Fives equivalent of the frozen North on Sunday as the Old Edwardians hosted North Oxford and the Old Etonians in a league double header at KES, Birmingham. With temperatures hovering around the -5° mark, North Oxford were first up, looking to maintain their hundred percent league record so far this season. First and third pairs went the Oxford side's way easily with Gareth Hoskins and Graham Pulsford beating Nick Bunyan and Rez Malik at first pair and Spencer Chapman and Saturday's 1-Wall handball hero Jeremy Hindle teaming up to make short work of Ed Johnson and schoolboy James Claughton at third. With the Edwardians juggling their resources in a way that would have made Tony Hughes proud, the second pair game looked like a close contest on paper and so it proved on court. Edwardian pair Chris Mellor and Richard Ambler took the first and third games but each time North Oxford's Chris Lloyd and Greg Hammond struck back to level the match and take it into a fifth. There was never more than two points between the pairs throughout the final game, but it was the Edwardians who took it 12-10 to inflict the first league defeat on a North Oxford pair this season.

The afternoon match against the Etonians was full of drama but not necessarily for the right reasons. With the Etonians only able to produce one bona fide eligible Etonian pair, club secretary Alex Knight had enterprisingly rounded up an assortment of Wulfrunians and spare players form the morning match to ensure the fixture was played with a full complement. To add to the mix, the lights then failed just as the match was about to start and within a few points of the first pair starting Nick Bunyan of the Edwardians suffered a nasty looking eye injury that meant he was unable to continue. The second and third pair matches both made it to a conclusion, with the OEs ineligible players meaning the points went to the Eds whatever the result, and the Edwardians can take a lot of encouragement from the good performances of youngsters James and Tom Claughton (stepping in for the injured Bunyan) who showed a lot of promise for the future.