With Kennedy MBA-ing and will-he-won't-he Andy finally declining, it was left to the backbone of the Defiants -- Steve and Ed -- to continue our fine start. Conquered the Cormorants. Now to antagonise the Avocets. You're a long way from home: welcome to the Britannia thunderdome.

Wielding his awkward bat awkwardly is James, and lobbing them high is nice guy Kevin, both of whom we've seen before. Good to have a chat with getting-on Don. Is it really 20 years since we -- well, Ed -- first played him in SCC's canteen on Rope Walk? Scary. In brief:

• Steve went down in four ends to Kevin in a well-matched game, then dug deep to win in five ends against James
• Ed got all three -- that's the headline -- but left it late to scrape past Kevin in a tough match, and nearly lost an end to Don

Doubles team picked itself. Poor, poor start, losing first two ends, before we rallied (!) and applied ourselves via a few edges. We'll take the 6-4 win.