After the disappointment of the rest of the weekend with the men's and ladies first team losing on Saturday and Warwickshire league side performing abysmally in the afternoon tournament, it was left to the men's B&D team to restore some pride in the club.

Taking one of the best and strongest B&D sides, Riga always knew our opposition would be strong with three ex - Riga players in their line up.

Riga cruised to a comfortable first set victory with some inspired chicken wing defensive antics by Richard Digby and excellent all-round play. Jan Hallberg who normally plays as an off-setter, was roped into setter duties due to absence of our normal setters, did a fine job setting up attacks for Danny Showler and Martin Warman in particular.

Back: Rich Digby, Graham Duckett, Rich Meade, Chris Nason
Front: Martin Warman, Danny Showler, Jan Hallberg

The Tamworth block

The second set was a lot closer with Tamworth starting to penetrate through the strong Riga block, though the two Rich's on numerous occasions stuffed the opposition with a their fine blocking.

The Third set was a very close with a nail biting finish. Some excellent backcourt defence and siding out by Riga compensated for some appalling Refereeing with the second referee seeming to be Tamworth's seventh man.

After facing set point at 25-24, Riga eventually pulled back to win 28-26 in one of the best B&D performances of the year. Everyone played well especially young Martin Warman who seemed to be in inspired form - lets hope he can translate that form to his coaching of the ladies team.

Richard Digby hits