AFTER finishing just three points off top spot in the first half of the season, Thornbury A were looking to go one better this time around.

However in the first week of the new season, it didn't all go to plan with newly-promoted Lansdown A fielding a strong side and Thornbury missing one of their key players from last season, there were heavy defeats in four of the five matches, Craig Webb salvaged some pride losing his match 3-2.

Thornbury will be looking to make a vast improvement next week to ensure relegation does not become a threat.

Thornbury B team started their Premier C campaign against Lansdown B with a brave opening fight in the upper tiers of the league.

Mark Toseland fought hard with a match lasting nearly an hour narrowly losing 3-2 and Viv Bailey-Gard debuted at number five for the B team, putting in a good performance but coming away with a 3-0 defeat.

Next on was Dale Curtis who opened his bag of unorthodox sometimes "tennis style" shots to give his opponent problems, Dale lost the first game but then turned up the heat and style winning the next 3 games to take the match 3-1, a good gritty performance from an experience league player.

Chris Hutchence had a close match but narrowly lost in each game to lose 3-0. Finally Justin Edwards was on and fought hard in the first game winning 9-7 but his experienced player then switched it around and won the next three games taking the match 3-1. Thornbury losing 17-6 overall.

Thornbury C team managed to avoid the drop from division one last season despite finishing bottom due to a few teams dropping out in the leagues above, consequently it looks like it will be another hard fight to avoid finishing in the bottom two.

The first game of the season away to David Lloyd B ended in a three matches to two defeat with good 3-1 wins for Cliff Hall and Colin Preece but everyone else losing out 3-0.

Thornbury D won promotion to division three following a 3rd place finish in the autumn season but it looks like it will be a bit harder this season due to losing a couple of players to higher teams.

The first game of the season against Lansdown D saw just the 1 victory for new captain Ian Johnson playing at first string in a 3-2 marathon. Bruce Newman picked up a point in his game with everyone else failing to register, the final score being 18-4.

The Thornbury E team of Graham Dono, James Jenkins, Matt Brown, John Hewitt and Bill Ellis went to Vivo Sports to play their first match in division five.

Unfortunately Graham was the only player to get a game and Vivo were worthy winners by 19-1. It looks like being a tough season for the E team having moved up a division.