WRITHLINGTON FIRSTS 8, OLVESTON FIRSTS 2 / WRITHLINGTON SECONDS 8, KINGS SECONDS 2

Fine wins for the Firsts and Fourths propel them into the promotion spots, with the Seconds holding their own mid-table. The Thirds had a tough match – we had a strong team, but the opposition were outstanding!

The Mighty Fifths will no doubt benefit from the return (from injury) of their talismanic Captain Dean “Dean’s Ball” Taylor this week.

Whilst all teams are finding it tough, we again had a positive point count this week, with a 26–24 advantage. Huge thanks to Mike Cuthbert for, at very late notice, ferrying Matt Alexander and Adam Benney to their Third team fixture at Almonsbury, with him going on to play at Thornbury for the Fourths.

Yet another fantastic Ladies clean-sweep makes it highly likely that at least one team will be promoted. In particular, the Firsts had an incredible 8–2 win at division-leaders Bath, which means they leapfrog Bath to the top spot!

The Writhlington team of Tom Hunt, Simon Brand, Nathan Jackson and Patrick Lodge took on top-of-the-division Olveston. Patrick and Nathan teamed up for the first time to take on Bruce and James. Some good serving and backhands from Writhlington saw them through 6–2, 6–2.

Meanwhile, Simon was caught in traffic, but made it at 6.44 p.m., and warmed up with just two groundstrokes and two serves, and he and Tom played Nick and James. After splitting the first two sets with some excellent points – and Tom’s movement and defensive skills a particular highlight – they opted for a championship tie-break. 10–5 to Olveston.

Patrick and Nathan then played against Nick and James. They produced an almost flawless display (apart from a couple of dodgy smashes and a volley), and won 6–0, 6–1.

Tom and Simon had a very competitive second match, much like the first. This time, the Writhlington duo won through 6–3, 6–4. Special mention to Tom who has not played a competitive match since last year, yet he was exceptional! Also worth noting a lifetime best “9/7” (as he put it) success rate with his smashes.

The Seconds team of Chris Cox, Darren Thompson, Graham Steer and Andy Jeffery were keen to put last week’s 10–0 loss at the leaders, Sodbury, behind them, and a match against bottom-of-the-table Kings was the ideal opportunity.

A strong Kings team turned up just before the penalty deadline, but Dan and Mike showed no sign of travel fatigue as they took the first set from Graham and Andy, 6–2. The Writhlington pair then found another gear, with Graham’s intercepts at the net yet again proving crucial, and they cruised the next two sets 6–3, 6–2 for an excellent win.

Meanwhile, Chris and Darren made light work of Nick and Joe, with Chris’s crosscourt power and Darren’s volleying finesse giving them a 6–2, 6–4 win.

After the turnaround, the Kings A pair of Dan and Mike had managed to get accustomed to the indoor conditions, and set about Chris and Darren with renewed vigour. The Writhlington pair did not have an answer to their aggressive net play, going down 2–6, 3–6.

Graham and Andy were making life difficult for themselves against Nick and Joe. Having continued their fine form and taking the first set 6–2, they suddenly lost it, and were 5–2 down in the second set, before staging a mini-recovery to 5–5. Andy then lost his serve, and they took it 7–5. With the clock at 9.15 p.m., a long discussion ensued about whether we should play a third set or champ tie-break.

Graham was instrumental in persuading them to play a set, and we started like a rocket, going 4–0 up, then 5–1. Two duff games from the home team let Kings back into it, but at 5–3, forty-love up we couldn’t fail… could we?

Kings did a huge lob, Andy called it for an easy smash, but then lost the ball in the roof lights and embarrassingly had to run round it and gave them an easy put-away. Thankfully, Graham saved Andy’s bacon on the next point by doing a superb lob over their heads that just clipped the baseline for a 6–2, 5–7, 6–3 win.

This win gives us twenty points from four matches, but it is becoming clear that Sodbury and Lansdown are the clear division leaders, with Writhlington, Kings, Camvale and Knowle scrapping amongst themselves to avoid the two relegation places.

Andy Jeffery and Patrick Lodge