HOLCOMBE Brook cruised past bottom club Thongsbridge in the men’s northern qualifying round of the Aegon Team Tennis Championship.

Only Simon Roberts was seriously challenged in the singles rounds when he beat Dan Sinclair in the battle of the number ones.

But when the Brook’s most reliable man recorded a 7-6, 7-5 victory to follow easier wins for Chris Nott, Rob Morgan and captain Andrew Davies, victory at the Huddersfield-based team was sealed.

In the doubles, Roberts and Davies beat Sinclair and Luke Johnson comfortably 6-2, 6-2. Then Morgan and Nott were taken to the wire by Tom Sanders and Mike Tolman.

After sharing the sets 6-3, 3-6 they completed the whitewash by winning a championship tie-break shootout 10-7.

Attention now turns to Sunday’s crucial home match against Wrexham.

The sets won against Thongsbridge could be vital to secure captain Davies’s goal of top spot in the round-robin stage.

With Manchester club Northern currently two points ahead, but having completed their fixtures, top place will be decided by the number of sets won if Brook can beat the Welsh team.

Davies said: “Outright victory has always been our target, although losing our opening match against Northern didn’t help the cause. Second and third- placed teams will have difficult play-off fixtures against strong Midlands group opponents.”

Davies has added Chris Parkes to Sunday’s line-up, dopping himself to a doubles role to give his team the best possible chance of success.