There were a few surprises, with McDonald Hawks setting the scene for the year with an excellent win over reigning premiers Port Augusta Refrigeration Eagles, winning 15 rubbers to six rubbers.

Hawks, who have been in intensive pre season training disposed of the champs.

Captain Stewart Vincent once again stood out with three wins and others to play well for the Hawks included Karl Chamberlain ,Todd Phillips and Bob Bermmerl with three wins.

“All the hard work paid off tonight and we were very happy with the result, this is the start of our finals campaign for 2009 and I think we have the team to do it,” Vincent said.

The reformed National Bank Go Nabs side also had a good win over 2008 grand finalists Magic FM Power, 12 rubbers to 8.

New recruit and State junior, coach Richard Frencham, won his three games with Craig Shirley the only player to take him to four sets.

He will be hard to beat this year.

Pam Thomas with three wins and John and Bryce Kelly also contributed with two wins.

The team captain said: “We may have lost most of the team from last year but we looked good tonight or perhaps Power was bad, only time will tell, we can still improve, Alastair Miller can only improve and Matt Prentis showed his has the goods to play against top three players”.

For the Power, Wes Yates, Mark Shirley and Stephen Noll helped ease the pain with two wins - it could be a long year for the Power.

Max Duhring’s Crows had an excellent win over South Augusta Bulldogs, 16 rubbers to three rubbers in an emphatic win.

Best players for the Crows were Max Duhring, Alby Kroes and Julie Warner with three single wins and Peter Trewartha and Phil Morphett with two wins.

Captain comments: “ It was pretty convincing tonight, even with Peter Trewartha having to play for us at the last minute the team performed well, I’m confident of a good year.”