Tek Sing Lexden are top of the National League (southern division) thanks to an excellent away win against former top spot holders Triage Broxbourne.

This fifth-round battle, which marked the final match of the first half of the season was always predicted to be a close call with Broxbourne leading Lexden by one point after the fourth round.

Both teams will be happy that their nearest rivals Connaught lost 3-2 to Lee on Solent.

However, Chichester's win over Guildford has meant that there is only a four point gap between second and third places.

The evening began with Broxbourne's rising star Alison Waters taking on Lexden's Rebecca MacRee.

The result was never in doubt with the experienced MacRee winning 3-0.

The next men's match offered Broxbourne their first winning opportunity of the night with Alex Stait taking on Lexden's junior player David Woodman.

Stait won the match 3-0.

The second string match saw Broxbourne's Rodney Durbach take on Lexden's Simon Parke.

Durbach won to give Broxbourne a 2-1 lead in the match.

The performance of the night for Lexden came from their previously out-of-form captain Tony Hands who pitted his wits against Broxbourne's equally experienced Danny Meddings.

Hands (who had played at first string for the first two matches) had not won a match in four appearances this season but in the first game he showed that he had every intention of reversing that trend.

He won the first 9/4 but immediately faced an equally tough second game.

Meddings took the second game 12/10 and then Hands took the third 10/8.

In the fourth game Hands played the tighter squash and kept a cool head which allowed him to move ahead early in the game.

He kept up the pressure and forced one or two errors at crucial times, eventually winning 9/3 and squaring the match in preparation for a grandstand finish.

In the final match of the evening, Broxbourne's Mark Chalanor took on Lexden's David Evans in a battle that would determine league positions over the Christmas period.

Both players started well with Chalanor playing at a fast pace and attempting to force his opponent to make mistakes.

Evans was up to the challenge and took the first game 9/7 with a remarkable drive into the nick.

However, what was destined to be an exciting finale for the crowd was swiftly ended when Chalanor withdrew with a pulled hamstring.

Published Thursday December 13, 2001