David Lloyd took advantage of the summer storms by not losing a rubber to Pocklington in one of the few Tyke Petroleum Tennis League matches to beat the downpurs.

In a fiercely fought contest, under the arched roofs, new David Lloyd member Jan Dyl top-scored with 23 games, partnering regular Ben Orton. Lloyd’s other two pairs hit 21 each for a comfortable 65-43 win.

With Dunnington and York rained off, the win hoisted David Lloyd to second ahead of their show-down with leaders Poppleton next week.

Below-par Bubwith put up a fight against holiday-hit Fulford, but found Richard Parker and Govind Baker too hot to handle, as the Fulford first-pair notched 31 games in a 67-41 away win. Fulford’s Patrick Herriot and Arran Tate performed wonders to score 20.

Despite Phil Bremner and Jonathan Sharpe bagging 23 games for Sherburn in their promotion show-down, it was hosts Knaresborough King James, who had the biggest guns.

They shot into an 24-12 unassailable first round lead to go second in division three.

With a match in hand, Knaresborough have a good shout for promotion behind Stamford Bridge, who crushed Cawood 77-31. Only Cawood’s Chris Abbott and Graham Bond managed to win a rubber against the runaway leaders.

In a ding-dong division five promotion thriller, Starbeck 2 were out of the blocks fastest, with a 20-16 first round win at home to Bubwith 2.

However, Bubwith captain Rob Jackson, alongside Tommy Harkanyi then scored an 11-1 win to give them a narrow 38-34 lead. ’Beck then rallied in the wind-whipped final round to take the tie 59-49.

Harlow were taking no prisoners as they hosted David Lloyd 2, the only team to have beaten them.

The division six leaders debuted four players who between them scored a match-winning 57 games, as revenge for their 59-49 early-season reverse. For the losers, Paul Chappell and Alastair Heath still managed to score 17 against the high-quality foes.

Harlow now lead by four points from David Lloyd 2, with four games to go.

Unbeaten Stamford Bridge 2 hit top spot in division seven after an emphatic 61-47 win at bottom-team Selby.

Full-strength Pocklington 2 just out-pointed stubborn Starbeck 3 57-51, despite 4 Starbeck players ending the match unbeaten.

Chris Noddings and Tom Hendry won all their three rubbers for a total of 23, while Terry Kelly and Darryl Pawson drew every rubber. Every Pocklington pair lost one rubber and drew one, but still ended on the winning side.