A good week for Writhlington’s Men, who made the most of the fine summer evening with a 28–12 match-point advantage. The Firsts had a cracking 8–2 win over promotion-chasing Downend Seconds, with the Downend Captain smashing his racket in frustration at their performance!
‘Youngsters’ Matt Alexander and Tom Hunt started for Writhlington, with very able support from seasoned campaigners, Nathan Jackson and Patrick Lodge. This result catapults the Firsts into a promotion position!
There were more bad tempers in the Seconds’ win at Knowle Thirds, with the Writhlington team having to suffer a stream of abuse. However, the 8–2 win gave us the satisfaction of almost certainly consigning Knowle to relegation!
The Thirds more than made up for an earlier-season 6–4 loss to Lakeview, when we had to hand them six points on a plate due to the injury to Derek Beg early on in the match. The 8–2 win could have been 10–0 if Sam Thomson and Steve Lawrence had got out of the starting blocks earlier. Despite this win, the Thirds will have quite a battle to avoid the drop.
The Fourths’ star pairing of Nigel Hellier and Callum Nowell suffered an uncharacteristic setback by losing a rubber, but this was against the division’s runaway leaders, Bristol University Seconds. The other pair of Ray Clarke and Mike Cuthbert more than made up for this by winning one of their rubbers in the overall 6–4 loss.
The Ladies’ Firsts and Seconds are now virtually assured of promotion after their fine wins at Almondsbury Firsts and home to Kings Fourths, respectively. The Thirds and Fourths could still push for promotion if they do well in their last three matches.
Andy Jeffery