INCONSISTENT Alcester A squandered a glorious chance to claim runners-up spot in the Wildmoor Summer Tennis League this week after suffering a 4-0 defeat at relegation threatened Pershore.

That was after Alcester's B team had travelled to second placed Chipping Campden and pulled off a prized 3-1 win.

Marcus Powell and Sam Thruston-Nend eclipsed Campden's George Richards and Tobias Kemp 7-6, 6-2 and then despatched the partnership of Geoff and Phil Wood 6-4-6-1.

Gareth Price and Matt Fielding then made certain of an Alcester success with a 1-6, 6-4, 1-0 win over the Wood's before losing to Richards and Kemp 6-3, 4-6, 0-1.

But instead of taking advantage, Alcester A plummeted against Pershore as Stuart Beach and James Clemons crashed 6-1, 6-2 to George Southall and Mike Langston.

They also lost out 6-3, 7-5 to Pershore's Antony Fordham and Jon Guppy.

Charlie and Pete Watson fared little better, losing to Southall and Langston 6-1, 6-2 and then going down to Fordham and Guppy 6-2, 6-2.

Stratford have already wrapped up the league title going into the final round of fixtures while Chipping Campden continue to cling to second spot on 31 points, two clear of Alcester A while Alcester's B team are another two points adrift in fourth place.

Rock bottom Redditch have long been resigned to relegation and saw little improvement as they lost 4-0 to Henley-in-Arden.

Redditch's Matthew Cutler and Ben Portman lost 6-1, 6-1 to Henley's Oli Didlick and Tom Griffiths, who then went onto defeat Darren Cutler and Lubo Smoliar 6-2, 6-0.

Cutler and Smoliar also lost 6-4,6-2 to Brett Mackay and Matt Williams, who followed up with 6-2, 6-2 triumph over Cutler and Portman.