Northants 3 came up against another of the top teams this week and were only able to salvage 5 points.  Rob Pearce at 4 and Andy Seaward at 2 both faced strong opponents and lost 3-0.  Rob was unable to find sufficient length to beat an opponent with very accurate front of court play and Andy played well with some excellent rallies but his opponent was on excellent form and just too quick for him to match.  Lin Leach at 5 similarly lost 3-0 with a dismal display best forgotten!  Mark Williams, playing his first team match, took the a 2-0 lead but he began to tire (being on his second match of the night!) and his accuracy suffered so despite giving it his all he went down 3-2.  That left Earl Harrison recently returned after a very rapid recovery from surgery on his elbow and in fine form but still not keen to unnecesarily cut short any match when there is court time to play!  Earl lost the first game narrowly at 8-10 then took command and won the next game 9-5 looking clearly the stronger player.  Earl eased up in the 3rd to let his opponent back in to win that game so that he could make sure to get his money's worth and he then duly took the last two games quite easily. We all enjoyed Sandy's excellent food all the more for Earl giving us the opportunity to work up an appetite while he played out play the full 5 games, but I guess we can't complain as he was our only winner!