FLYERS’ Steve McGrath and Ben Hampton produced the shock result of the season so far with a deserved 2-0 win over Jersey’s Commonwealth Games-bound county squad players Gavin Carter and Clive Dunford.

The defeat of the current champs was all the more surprising given McGrath/Hampton’s somewhat lacklustre start to the campaign, but they were obviously in determined mood.

It was this determination that enabled them to build an early lead before Carter/Dunford realised they were in a real contest.

The Flyers took the opening set 15-10, and although there was a greater focus about the champions in the second set they were thwarted, in particular, by McGrath’s serving which rarely gave them a chance to attack the shuttle.

McGrath and Hampton held their resolve and, when the opportunities arose, were good enough to take advantage of any slip-ups by Carter/Dunford, and clinched the set 15-12 to win the match.

The winners were straight back on court to face another Jersey pair, John Wood/Paul Deveney, who they overcame in three sets 15-6, 7-15, 15-10.

These two victories move the Flyers pair away from the relegation zone and up to fourth place.

In the other match in this division Grainville’s Frank Bougeard /Kevin Armstrong came from behind against Hawks’ Steve Bealey/Gregg Storrie to win 12-15, 15-11, 15-10.

The win moves them out of the bottom two, but they are only a point ahead of Wood/Deveney.

With two matches still to play, the outcome of the Ladies section is effectively a foregone conclusion with Grainville’s Corinne Le Feuvre /Trish O’Brien six points ahead of second-placed Gil Stephenson/Jean Cross.

Le Feuvre/O’Brien breezed through the opening set 15-2 against Jill Luce/Lynn Wojciechowski and despite meeting a stiffer test in the second they still had too much guile, winning 15-11.

This experience came to the fore in their match with Juniors, Katherine Thornton/Eve Watson whom they beat 15-3, 15-7.

Stephenson/Cross retain second spot with two 2-0 wins to their names, the first of which was against clubmates Julie Kleis/Karen Jandron and the second at the expense of bottom pairing Nicola Somerville/ Claire Jackson, who was standing in for the injured Liz Hadfield.

The Mukhi sisters, Dimple and Manisha, enjoyed a good evening and move to third, with the pick of their wins being a creditable 15-1, 15-8 defeat of Luce/Wojciechowski.

Men’s Division II was won by Flyers’ Dave Siouville/Adrian Akers following their 15-9, 15-6 defeat of clubmates Mike Smith/Andy Norman.

The win leaves them two points clear of second-placed Matt Le Meur/Mark Hopwood from Hawks who claim the second promotion place.

Le Meur and Chris Beechey (standing in for Hopwood) won what was effectively a promotion play-off against Grainville’s Clive Bishop/Kevin Jones in straight sets, 15-6, 15-7.

Even though Bishop/Jones have a game in hand on the Hawks’ men and can go level on points, they have already conceded more games than their rivals and cannot now overhaul them.

In the other match played in this division, juniors Ben Watson/Tom Gibbs carried over their recent good form from the junior ranks into the league to beat Grainville’s Chris Betambo/David Turner 17-14, 4-15, 17-14 and move above their rivals.