Playing at No 1 in his first game of the season for the Caesareans, former Island Games champion Jeremy Cross lost to 17-year-old Adam Hassan 6-2, 6-1 before Ian Morgan also lost to a teenager; this time 6-0, 6-3 to 16-year-old Bradley Bant.
Following this Richard Bruggraber put up a good fight against Richard Honess, taking him to a tie-break in the second set, before he also went down, 6-3, 7-6.
Playing at No 4 in the tie, Richard Brocken lost to James Bird 6-2, 6-3 before Bruggraber and Cross lost to Bant and Hassan 6-4, 7-6 in the doubles; the tie-break going to 9-7 in a much closer game than the score suggests.
The whitewash was completed when Morgan and Mark Connelly lost 6-3, 7-5 to Bird and Honess in another close game which prompted captain Ian Morgan to say: ‘It was a tough game for Caesareans, which means we’ve lost our first three matches and have to win two of our next three matches to stay in this division.
It hasn’t always been easy getting a full team out for all of the games we’ve played, and this is a strong division: some of the teams we’ve played are stronger than the clubs we played last year, in Division I.
‘Next weekend we’re away to Brighton Pavilion and Avenue and for this match we’re including a leading junior, Richard Jordan, who’s just 15.
This will be his first taste of the national league.
Other clubs are playing their top junior players.
It’s good that we can bring in at least one of our best juniors in this division.’
