North Oxford won their seventh Division 2 match on the trot last night at Westminster, with a comfortable 3-0 win over the Old Ipswichians. The closest contest was at first pair where North Oxford skipper Gareth Hoskins teamed up with Old Summerfieldian Tom Faber - returning to his Oxford prep school rooots - to beat Tom Fletcher and David Leach in three tight games; a fast ball on a fast court made it difficult to kill the ball in the buttress but Gareth's driving to the back right and Tommy's touch play on top step were enough for them to come through 6,9 and 6. North Oxford had too much firepower for the OIs further down the order, as veteran Chris Davies showed he's lost none of of his class, teaming up with Spencer Chapman to beat Simon Woolfries and Robin Chatterjee. Similarly, Chris Austin and youngster Carl Rennie - making an impressively assured Division 2 debut - were too strong for Oli Watts and Tim Wyndham at third pair. North Oxford sit on top of the table with 20 points, but will be watching closely to see if the teams below with games in hand, such as the Stoics and the Millhillians, can narrow the gap over the next couple of months.

The Salopians 2's disappointing start to the season continued on Monday night as they lost 3-0 to the Old Olavians 3 at Westminster. Despite every pair being hard fought, none of the three Salopian pairs were able to to pick up a point for the beleagured Shrewsbury outfit, currently marooned at the bottom of the table. The performance of the Salopian sextet - Marc Quinn, Craig Webster, Pete Nichols, Sam Jarvis, Tom Lister and Ian Mitchell - against their Olavian rivals should give them encouragement that this state of affairs will prove to be temporary but on the night the Olavians just had the edge. Sanjaya Ranasinghe and Luke Stradwick beat Marc and Craig in three close games, Pete and Sam lost 12-7 in the fifth to Billy Dennis and Charlotta Cooley having established a 2-1 lead and Ian and Tom went down 3-1 to recent school leavers David Hewlett and Constantine Philippou. The 3-0 win moves the Olavians 3 up to third place in the table, just half a point behind the Stoics.