IN a crucial penultimate game of the season Wessex saw off relegation strugglers Marlborough A 5-0.

Wessex’s tattooed talisman Adam Giles was back and he was too strong for Marlborough’s Julian Beckett, winning the first leg 3-0.

At second string for Wessex was James Roue against Nick Mallaburn. Roue was able to keep the upper hand and provide the second win of the night for Wessex.

Anthony Dennington started well against Pat Carty and got into a comfortable lead. Carty was never able to get his nose in front enough to win a game, allowing Deddington to chalk up Wessex’s third win of the night.

James Perry and Wessex’s Ed Crane provided the contest of the night. In a marathon battle, neither player was able wrestle control for any sustaned period. In the fifth set decider Perry powered out to a 7-3 lead. Crane hung in to draw level at 8-8 and came through a nail-biting finale, taking his first opportunity to seal the leg.

The final game saw John Pierce take on Alex Freedman. Pierce got off to a slow start but then got the measure of his opponent to win convincingly 3-0.

The result sees Wessex make ground on league leaders Cricklade and trail them by just three points with one game remaining.

Wessex 2 were unable to maintain the form they showed against Division Two league leaders Marlborough B last week, going down 3-2 to Devizes firsts.

It started well for the visitors, with Wessex John Walker and Paul Maddison picking up wins. From this point it on, however, it was downhill for the visitors, with Steve Bessant losing 3-0 to the unorthodox Steve Urda and Mark Cairns never getting going against Adrian Lewis.

Neil Marshman’s game unravelled in the decider, after losing a tight first set to Pete Hatch, and he failed to get another point to allow Hatch a 3-0 win and seal the match.

The loss leaves Wessex staring at the demotion zone with three matches to go. Wessex 3 were hoping to build on the win at Cricklade in their previous fixture but failed to capitalise on their home advantage and lost 3-2 against Devizes 2, with only Josh Watkins and Ian Thompson getting wins.