After a disappointing first half of the campaign, the recent signs from the Old Ipswichians have been promising and they finally delivered on court at Westminster with a 2-1 win over the Old Westminsters 2 to take them out of minus numbers and open up a considerable gap between themselves and bottom club the Old Salopians 2. Captain Tom Fletcher set the tone at first pair, partnering promising youngster David Leach to a five game win over Conrad Shawcross and Callum Brock. It's great to see two recent school leavers such as David and Callum getting the opportunities at first pair for their respective teams and performing so well. By way of contrast the OI second pair was the old firm of Peter Boughton and Simon Woolfries - remarkably with well over a thousand OI matches between them over the years - and they showed they've still got what it takes at this level with a straight games win over Freddie Krespi and Chris Watts. The OIs also won the third pair as Mike Fenn, whose playing career makes the Boughton/Woolfries combination look like a pair of callow youths, partnered the ineligible Nick Bunyan to a win over Andrew Aitken and Matt Chen. A win to the OIs but a point to the OWs. OI skipper Fletcher was understandably delighted to finally end their league drought with a win and described his team's performance as a "cracking effort, which was then followed by a few celebratory lemonades".

Elsewhere in Division 2, the Old Westminsters 2 travelled to Berkhamsted last week and picked up a useful away point, with the experienced Margerison and Shetty winning at third pair after the first two had gone the way of the Berkhamsted team, with schoolboys Alex Rattan and the Holroyd twins James and Charles to the fore.

The Edwardians have also resumed play after their Christmas break and scored an impressive 2-1 win over the high-flying Stoics at Westway. Dave Mew and Ryan Perrie proved they have few equals as a Division 2 first pair with a win over Nick Bunyan and Alex Cybulski but the Eds strength in depth meant that the second and third pairs both went their way, perhaps not that surprising as they featured the quality and experience of Peter Scholey, Simon Purkis, Nigel Cox and Courtney Friend, a quartet with a history of almost as many points on court as pints off it. With several games in hand over the teams above them, the Birmingham team are looking well placed for a high finish at the end of the season.

The Etonians also returned to winning ways after their recent defeat at the hands of Highgate School as they won 2-1 against a battling Carthusian outfit at Westminster on Monday night. Mackenzie and Colquhoun came from a game down to defeat Burrows and Clarke at first pair and the wily duo of Martin Powell and Forman Wickes had too much nous for Mark Platt and Alex Manby at second. The Carthusians salvaged a useful point with a win at third pair, OC supremo Ronald Pattison teaming up with newcomer Adrian Love - ironically himself an Old Etonian, albeit with strong Carthusian links - to win against John Rowe and Giles Mckean. Both the OEs and OCs are currently languishing in the lower half of the table but both will be looking for a strong finish to the season to move them up a few places come the final reckoning at the end of April.