WELBECK Men slipped to third place in spite of winning narrowly 5-4 against Ecclesall at the weekend, and now have a tough task to gain promotion to Division 1.
Following rivals Beauchief B's defeat of Rustling B, both teams have won six and lost two – but Beauchief have won one extra rubber match.
This means Welbeck have to better Beauchief by two rubbers in next weekend's final match to gain promotion.
After the first round of matches Welbeck were 2-1 down, with Dave Millns and Stuart Tate losing 6-3, 6-4 to the Ecclesall first pair.
Charlie Pick returned from coaching in Spain to team up with Sandy Fulton as second pair. They won 7-6, 6-4 after a long struggle in the first set.
Last match heroes Steve White and Nick Sturrock lost a third set tie-break to the third pair to lose 3-6, 6-2, 7-10.
In the next round of matches Dave and Stuart easily won 6-1, 6-2, while Sandy and Charlie lost to the first pair 7-6, 6-4 after missing five set points in the first set.
Prospects were looking bleak until Steve and Nick beat the second pair 6-3, 0-6, 10-7, leaving the match delicately poised at 3-3.
The last round of matches started disastrously, with Dave and Stuart losing a third set tie-break to the second pair.
Charlie and Sandy easily beat the third pair to leave Steve and Nick to beat the first pair to win the match.
They rose to the occasion magnificently to thrash the first pair 6-1, 6-1.
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