Results: Men’s Seniors – Central 2-8 Writhlington. Mixed – Firsts won 10–0 at Henleaze and Seconds won 10–0 home to Rodway Hill.
With the Mixed Firsts now promoted to Division 1, any thought of a clean sweep was a pipedream, especially with the star players that got them into Div. 1 (Mandy Baldwin and Patrick Lodge) missing! However, all three matches were not only wins, but almost annihilations!
Huge praise to the B pairings this week – Lucy Burningham, with Callum Nowell, James Brocksopp, with Kelly Lycett and Mark Finch, with Nigel Hellier, all went beyond the call of duty to record fantastic wins against better opposition. Callum, especially, gave blood, sweat and tears in diving (on tarmac!) for an impossible ball at a crucial point in the match and won it! He is certainly enormously committed and many say he should be!
Men’s Seniors
Central 2 – 8 Writhlington
“Happy Birthday to you” was sung by Mark Finch, Nigel Hellier and Andy Jeffery to the newly-45-year-old Chris Cox on their arrival on court.
I am quite sure that this public display of camaraderie and sportsmanship enabled us to psyche out the opposition and we floored what were extremely competent players.
Chris and Andy knew they had a tough task – Mark (Div. 4) was paired with Ken (Div. 4 and 8) and Chris started with three double faults!
However, Chris improved as the match progressed and the tactic of feeding Ken’s backhand worked so well that we won 6–4, 6–3 in a very close encounter. Nigel and Mark finished against Luke and Rob well before us and every time I looked over during their match, they lost a point, so I suspected the worst. You could have knocked me down with a feather when Nigel told me they won 6–2, 6–0!
They must have played out of their skins and it’s a shame Nigel didn’t write a match report!
In the second rubber, Andy played very poorly (blaming his eye ulcer, which forced him to wear glasses), but Chris carried him through and they squeezed a 6–2, 7–5 win against Luke and Rob. Luke particularly had a brilliant game and he found us wanting on numerous occasions. It shows how well Nigel and Mark did to lose just two games to Luke and Rob in the first rubber.
Not surprisingly, Mark and Ken were a bridge too far for Mark and Nigel and whilst they lost, it was a very respectable 6–2, 6–3. Look out for this Mark and Nigel combo in future matches!
We were extremely satisfied with an 8–2 win away from home and the celebrations of the win and Chris’ birthday continued long into the afternoon!
This week, Friday, 5th August, DL Westbury home – Derek Beg, Pete Caddick, Ray Clarke, Andrew Tibber.
A.J