Paola BC proved their intentions to re-claim the Mixed Teams League title recently after defeating Birkirkara Go & Fun in a tightly contested match.

The two teams were missing a key female player each, Katerina Vella Ryabkova, for Birkirkara, and Joanne Cassar, for the Paolites.

Birkirkara drew first blood as the duo formed of Klara O’Berg and Stefan Salomone claimed the mixed doubles at the expense of Anna Galea and Henrik Thomsen.

The two pairs were evenly matched in the first set, but a late rally by O’Berg/Salomone saw them claim the initial set 21-17. This seemed to boost the Birkirkara pair as they found little difficulty in the second set, 21-4.

Paola reacted strongly to this initial upset by winning the two singles matches and edge ahead of their opponents.

Kenneth Vella had the better of his opponent Song Chen Jun 21-13, 21-17.

Jacqueline Grech Licari then came from behind against Jacqueline Abela DeGiovanni, to win the women’s singles in three sets 24-22, 14-21, 7-21.

With the match at 2-1 in their favour, Paola needed to win one of the two remaining doubles to seal overall victory.

But Birkirkara would not go down without a fight and Stefan and Ivan Salomone defeated Thomsen/Owen Grech 21-16, 21-11 to level the scores.

The women’s doubles was to decide the issue.

After two hard-fought sets, Galea/Grech Licari had the better of O’Berg/Abela DeGiovanni 21-19, 21-18 and handed the win to the Paolites.