by Simon Daish
CP Lyssois Lille Metropole registered its first win of the campaign, condemning TuS Bad Driburg to its second defeat in Group A.
The start of the tie actually favoured the hosts as Nina Mittelham put the German team ahead with a positive display against Maria Xiao (10-12, 11-8, 11-7, 14-12), but the lead didn’t last long with Sarah De Nutte losing out to Bernadette Szocs (3-11, 11-8, 10-12, 8-11) in the second fixture.
Sophia Klee and Nina Mittelham attempted to bring the hosts back into the tie, however, respective defeats to Agnes Le Lannic (10-12, 7-11, 4-11) and Bernadette Szocs (6-11, 7-11, 6-11) handed the visiting team the win.
More French success came in Group D as TT Saint Quentinois picked up two points on its travels to the Czech Republic.
Despite an exemplary outing from Guo Lin, who contributed two wins for the hosts, SKST Mart Hodonin-Stavoimpex ended up with just the one point as the team of Cheng Hsien-Tzu, Daniela Monteiro Dodean and Britt Eerland edged to a narrow 2-3 victory.
Over in Group C Austrian side Linz AG Froschberg proved too strong for UCAM Cartagena TM, defeating the Spanish team with little difficulty.
Sofia Polcanova impressed in the opening encounter of the match, powering to a straight games victory over Tetyana Bilenko (11-4, 11-7, 11-7) before positive outings from Zhang Mo and Linda Bergstrom in the second and third fixtures against Wang Zhipei (11-8, 3-11, 11-7, 11-3) and Adina Diaconu (11-7, 8-11, 11-6, 12-10) sealed the win for Linz.
The other tie saw Cheng I-Ching lead by example with her brace of wins helping Szekszard AC to a 1-3 triumph away to ALCL TT Grand-Quevilly.
European Champions League: Results and Fixtures