A Star beginning in the Winter League
Newly promoted Moorgate A started their life in Division 1 of the Sheffield and District Winter League with a home fixture against Wheatley Hills A and got off to a flyer as Dave Mangham and Gary Bridgeman cruised to an easy win without dropping a single game, although the visitors tied things up by beating Emily Busby and Georgina Taylor.
As is often the case the Mixed Doubles matches were fertile ground for the home team as both Dave/Emily and Gary/Georgina were comfortable winners giving their team a 3-1 win.
Moorgate B who were also promoted last year into Division 2 were always going to face some difficult games as one of the only two B teams in a Division full of A teams and their first match was away to Brentwood A and despite a series of tight rubbers the team of Daniel Hudson Giddings, David Evans, Debbie Johnson and Laura Cowan only had a tie break win for David and Debbie to show for their efforts in a 3-1 defeat.
Moorgate C and Moorgate D faced each other in a Division 5 clash following the D team's promotion last year and in the men's match the greater power of Alan Dobson and Dylan Beard was too much for their D team counterparts Mark Busby and Todd Sweeney,
In the Ladies match the experienced duo of Jan Gaynor and Ada Wood took on the younger Freya Wilby and Lucy Bows and appeared to be heading for a straight sets win before a fightback from Freya and Lucy ended with them winning a set tie break and a championship tie break to snatch victory from the jaws of defeat.
In the Mixed Doubles the strength of the men was to prove crucial with a win for Alan and Jan over Mark and Freya accompanied by a win for Dylan and Ada against Todd and Lucy giving the C team a 3-1 win
In Division 7 Moorgate E were expecting a difficult season against some higher ranked teams but proved that they can compete at this level as they travelled to face Rustlings D and but for two championship tie break losses for Guy Stevens/Steve Dawson and Georgia Muffet/Emily Dean could have achieved either a draw or a win but ended up losing 3-1 despite a good win for Guy and Georgia in the Mixed Doubles.