OUR Lady of Peace B won the Team Handicap competition in the Reading & District League, retaining the trophy they won as OLOP E the previous season.

In yet another tight match which required a final-set decider, Reading FC A just missed out for a second successive season as OLOP prevailed 5-4.

Reading FC got off to a flying start with Antony Alleyne inflicting a first competition defeat on Hari Laddunuri in set one.

Captain Richard Witt then doubled Reading’s lead, beating Pradeep Desh in three games, before Abhay Gore – also unbeaten in the competition – pulled a set back with victory over Paul Brown.

Brown later put Reading 4-3 up, and in sight of the winning post, with a hard fought 21-23, 21-17, 21-18 win over Desh, but Gore downed Alleyne in set eight to level the match at 4-4.

In the final, despite losing the first game to Witt, Laddunuri squared it at 1-1 before getting off to a flier in the deciding game and holding on to secure the match and trophy for Our Lady of Peace.

The Earley club added the Lower Divisions knock-out trophy as the Our Lady of Peace D quartet of Binit Bhaskar, Desh, Gore and Pat Daniels defeated the Curzon Club C trio of Linda King, John Walker and Charlotte Binley 6-3.

From three sets each, OLOP’s predominately attacking game became harder for Curzon to contain, giving OLOP the edge and ultimately the match in set eight.

Set nine matched two unbeaten pairings on the night and it was Gore and Desh who secured their maximum with an 11-9, 11-9 victory over Walker and Binlay. Gore impressively remained unbeaten in the finals of both team competitions.