John White beat Mark Chaloner 8-10, 9-6, 9-6, 9-7
Simon Parke beat Rodney Durbach 9-2, 2-9, 9-7, 9-6
Renan Lavigne beat Alex Stait 4-9, 9-6, 7-9, 9-4, 11-9
Jason Nicolle beat Alister Walker 10-8, 9-5, 9-4
Wendy Maitland lost to Natalie Pohrer 3-9, 0-9, 0-9

Peter Genever lost to Stewart Boswell 10-8, 10-12, 4-9, 5-9
Mohamed Azlan Iskandar beat Del Harris 9-4, 9-2, 9-6
Tim Vail lost to Adrian Grant 5-9, 9-6, 10-8, 6-9, 5-9
Ben Garner beat Paul Lord 9-6, 9-4, 9-7
Suzie Pierrepont lost to Sarah Fitz-Gerald 3-9, 1-9, 0-9

The clash in Nottingham was a replay of the semi-final battle three years ago which narrowly went Broxbourne’s way before the Hertfordshire club progressed to take the National League title for the first time. Natalie Pohrer, then Nottingham-based, provided two valuable points for her home club over the two legs. Now US-based, Pohrer was visiting her old club for the first time as Broxbourne’s leading female force. Currently enjoying her best ever form, the world No2 romped to a 9-3 9-0 9-0 victory over the home team’s Scottish champion Wendy Maitland, who was standing in for the virus-stricken world No4 Tania Bailey.

Nottingham quickly fought back as Jason Nicolle, runner-up in last month’s British National Over-35 Championships, utilised his experience to overcome the visitors’ Alister Walker 10-8 9-5 9-4 in an unexpected loss by the talented youngster from Gloucestershire. Frenchman Renan Lavigne continued his good form for Nottingham, but twice had to come from behind before narrowly claiming his eighth successive league win in a 4-9 9-6 7-9 9-4 11-9 victory over Broxbourne’s Alex Stait.

It was left to Nottingham stalwart Simon Parke, the former world No3, to clinch victory for the hosts with a 9-2 2-9 9-7 9-6 win in 47 minutes over the visitors’ South African Rodney Durbach. In a fitting climax to the hard-fought battle between the two former National League champions, Scotland’s Nottingham-based world No5 John White played out a high-paced top string tussle against Broxbourne captain Mark Chaloner, the England international ranked 12 in the world.

"Mark played the best I’ve seen him all season, so John had to be at the top of his game to beat him," said Nottingham team manager Phil Songhurst after White registered his 8-10 9-6 9-6 9-7 victory in 66 minutes to give the home team a 4-1 win.

Celebrating their first appearance in the semi-finals since 1998, Chichester entertained 2001 champions Edgbaston Priory. The Birmingham club claimed their ‘banker’ point in quick style when Sarah Fitz-Gerald, the five-times world champion from Australia, crushed Chichester’s 18-year-old Suzie Pierrepont, runner-up in the British Junior Championships earlier this month, 9-3 9-0 9-1. It was the formidable Fitz-Gerald’s 21^st successive National League victory in three seasons.

Chichester struck back as Ben Garner claimed his seventh win in a row for the club by beating the visitors’ experienced Paul Lord 9-6 9-4 9-7. A nail-biting third string clash between Chichester part-timer Tim Vail, 25, and full-time pro Adrian Grant, 22, saw the home team hero lead 2-1 before Grant, boasting a career-high world No31 ranking, clinched a crucial 9-5 6-9 8-10 9-6 9-5 victory for Edgbaston in 57 minutes.

The see-saw contest swung back in Chichester’s favour when young Malaysian Mohamed Azlan Iskandar, the 20-year-old former Asian Junior Champion who is in his debut season in the National League, dismissed experienced Priory stalwart Del Harris, the former world No5 from Essex, 9-4 9-2 9-6 to level the tie.

With 45 world ranking positions separating the pair, few would have bet against Priory’s world No4 Stewart Boswell strolling to victory in the top string decider against the home team’s Peter Genever, boasting seven wins out of nine this season. Indeed, the Chichester hero was a single point away from a 2-0 lead at 10-9 in the second game, but the Australian stepped up a gear to storm to a 8-10 12-10 9-4 9-5 win to gave Edgbaston Priory a 3-2 victory in the tie.

The second leg ties will be held on Tuesday 1^st April when Broxbourne host Nottingham and Edgbaston Priory entertain Chichester.

TVS Broxbourne Match Report

The match got under way with a resounding win for TVS’s World number 2 Natalie Pohrer who crushed Wendy Maitland dropping just 3 points. It was then the turn of the young TVS Broxbourne star Alister Walker to take on the experienced Jason Nicolle, this was a match always destined to go in the direction of the Hertfordshire team. Nicolle was having none of it and took the rubber 3-0 against a jaded looking Walker.

The star performance of the night came from The TVS star Alex Stait, a member of the team for the last 4 years turned in what was a career best performance against World number 27, French number 2 Renan Lavigne. The match should have been Alex’s with the games at 2 all Alex had 2 match points, but just failed to convert them allowing the Frenchman to take the match 11-9.Alex should certainly be proud of his performance on the night.

TVS Broxbourne favourite Rodney Durbach looked to be in control having lost the first game against Simon Parke, but then coming back to take the second 9-2, it was’nt to be and Parke went on to win 3-1.

The final match featured the world number 4 for Nottingham against TVSs World number 12 Mark Chaloner. Mark was playing one of his first competitive matches after coming back from a shoulder injury. It was breathtaking stuff played at an incredible pace with two of the hardest hitters in the world on court. Chaloner’s reflexes and court coverage were nothing less than stunning he took the first game 10-8, could this be the breakthrough so badly needed ?. The Broxbourne crowd as always were in full voice giving Mark their support, but world class performances from both players resulted in White finally winning 3-1.

So, what of the second leg to be played at Broxbourne on 1st April ? a 4-1 win could be enough and after the performance from the Broxbourne hero’s last night we know that anything is possible. TVS Broxbourne manager Geoff Long commented “The passion and spirit shown by our players is second to none, we cannot ask for, or expect any more. One thing is certain they will all be giving 100% at Broxbourne to reverse the result”