Pentland NUVOC were relegated from the men's first division of the Schelde Sports Scottish League after losing 3-1 to Glasgow Mets.

NUVOC needed to win and hope that Team Fife lost at home to City of Edinburgh to avoid the automatic relegation place.

City of Edinburgh duly beat Fife 3-0 and NUVOC looked like they had found an escape route after leading in the third set against Mets after taking the second set.

But Lars Jeppesen suffered a broken finger and, with no-one no the bench to substitute him, NUVOC were forced to concede the match.

Team Fife now go into a relegation play-off with Troon PA, hoping to preserve their top-flight status.

Meanwhile both North Lanarkshire teams were in action in Ayr on Saturday aginst Troon.

Bellshill Cardinals men went down 3-2 after fighting their way back from being down 2-0. The game was, as always, fiercely contested with both sides attacking and defending in equal measure. It was, however, Troon who had too much fire power and leaves Bellshill finishing a disappointing fourth in the Men’s second division.

The North Lanarkshire ladies were up next against the top team in the league, with Troon only losing once out of thirteen matches. This should have been a stroll for the home side given the recent erratic form of NLVC. However what turned out was an enthralling encounter which pushed the favourites all the way.

NLVC took a surprising 19-14 lead in the fist set before losing out 25-23. This was the closest NLVC have been to Troon and little was expected in the following set after such an effort however, the best was yet to come.

The second set was neck and neck with no side pulling away. Scores went up to 21-20 to NLVC before two excellent points took the away team to set point at 24-22. Troon’s usual resilience brought them back into the set only to be two more set points down before eventually winning the marathon set 29-27, the first two sets already taking 1 hour.

The disappointment and mammoth effort of the away team in the first two sets left them with little left for a much easier third set for Troon, winning the set 25-13 and the match 3-0.