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In the first leg of the eliminator for the World Championship, which took place at Haileybury, Guy Smith-Bingham defeated Harry Foster by four games to one13/16,15/4,15/10,15/1,15/10, to take an almost insurmoutable lead into the second leg at Queens Club.

Foster was first into his stride in the first game taking a 7/3 lead, thanks to some good length serving coupled with killing anything loose. At this stage Smith-Bingham started to find his serve and had a run of seven including 4 aces. He began to get up the court and kill the ball, hitting it hard and straight to a length, keeping Harry at the back of the court. In his next three hands he took a 13/9 lead and looked to have the game won when, twice, presented with a straightforward chance to kill the ball he struck it hard and too low, into the tin. Sensing that his opponent might be wavering Harry seized his opportunity and won four points needed to level the score. Guy called for set 3 but although he put Harry out at 0/1 he was unable to capitalize and Harry took the set 3/0 and the game 16/13.

The loss of this game seemed to act as a wake-up call for Smith-Bingham and from the start of the second game he took control of the match, particularly on serve. In the first game both players had served 8 aces each, during the next four games Smith-Bingham served a further 30 but Foster managed only 11 more, particularly giving Smith-Bingham chances to put away his forehand return. To a large extent Guy also cut out the unforced error, and took every opportunity, particularly on his backhand to put the ball away with pace and accuracy.

The match throughout was played at a tremendous pace, marked by fierce hitting from both protagonists and also by some magnificent retrieving , particularly by Harry, who despite not being allowed to attack as much as he would have wished, never stopped trying. In the fourth game especially Guy was dominant, going into a 13/0 lead before Harry won a point. In the fifth game Guy took a 9/4 lead but Harry pegged him back reaching 9/10 before Guy moved away again to 13/9 and although Harry won one more point Guy took the game and the match with a final ace.

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