North Ayrshire’s Main men came to the fore as the battle of the bottom two in the British League Premier Division was won by the Scottish club.

They travelled to Halton knowing their hosts probably needed a win to have any realistic hopes of beating the drop.

The Widnes club gave it a good go before subsiding 5-3, and it was two wins each for Richard and Christopher Main which were instrumental.

Richard Main got the visitors up and running in three close sets against Richard Lightowler (9, 10, 10) and Sean Doherty doubled the advantage in three against Kevin Dolder, but Joe Pilkington got Halton into the match, also in three, against Andrew Macpherson.

Christopher Main had a straightforward win over Jake Shaw, but Lightowler kept Halton in it as he overcame Doherty in four.

But two Main victories ensured North Ayrshire moved clear of their hosts at the bottom – Richard beating Pilkington and Christopher seeing off Dolder, both in three, with Christopher taking the match award.

It meant the final match had nothing riding on it, but it was a superb end to the fixture anyway as Shaw came from 2-0 down to defeat Macpherson 3-2 (5-11, 1-11, 11-5, 11-7, 12-10).

The result moved North Ayrshire up a place to fifth, above Cardiff City, both on six points. Cardiff saw opponents, Ormesby, rack up a full house at home in a fixture notable for young Joe Cope winning both his matches on his first appearance in the top flight this season.

Cope defeated Pouyan Javanmard 3-0 (11-7, 12-10, 11-9) and Ryan Crowley 3-1 (11-4, 11-7, 11-13, 11-4) to add to doubles for Filip Szymanski, Darius Knight and Danny Reed – who took the player-of-the-match award.

So Ormesby consolidated second place with 14 points, three points behind Drumchapel Glasgow, who maintained their serene progress at the top, returning from the long trip to BATTS with a 7-1 result.

There were some notable individual scorelines, though, not least Tony Halling putting the home side’s point on the board on his Premier Division debut.

Sepehr Bidari was his victim and it went the distance as Halling was twice pegged back before recording a 3-2 triumph (11-9, 7-11, 11-5, 10-12, 11-8).

Bidari was also extended by BATTS’ other debutant, Luke Walsh, before coming out on top in five (12-10, 8-11, 9-11, 11-6, 11-3).

Two wins each for He Zhi When, player-of-the-match Eugine Wang and Huang Yen Che ensured Drumchapel were never in any trouble, though a couple of the other matches did go to four.

BATTS remain third with nine points, one ahead of Fusion, who have played a match fewer.