Victory for the Men’s and Ladies’ Seniors, but defeat for both the Mixed 1sts and 2nds last weekend.

MEN’S SENIORS 1sts 6 DOWNEND 4

LADIES’ SENIORS 8 KINGS 2

ALMONDSBURY 1sts 10 MIXED 1sts 0

MIXED 2nds 4 RODWAY 2nds 6

Not the nicest conditions for a match, but Almondsbury chose to play in constant drizzle. A lot of effort from Writhlington, Darren Thompson and Sarah Dawe as one pair, Janie Bullus and Graham Steer the other. Unfortunately that effort couldn’t be turned into points against a strong Almonsbury side.

Graham and Janie lost their first rubber 6-3, 6-1 and the second 6-1, 6-1. Darren and Sarah lost their first rubber 6-4, 6-0 and the second 6-7, 6-1, 6-3.

Patrick Lodge and Jacqui Grainger paired up and ended up having two entertaining matches, Rodway’s youthful Will giving a good account of himself in the first rubber. The opposition had two contrasting styles of play in the second rubber, which posed some problems but neither of the Rodway pairs could do enough to prevent two home wins. Scores were 6-2, 6-3 in the first rubber and 6-3, 6-3 in the second.

It was a tougher proposition for Callum Nowell and Karen Miles, who found it hard going in both rubbers. They didn’t quite get into their games, and although producing some moments of quality, couldn’t maintain it and ended up with two losses. 6-3, 6-0 in the first and 6-2, 6-0 in the second.

Downend were promoted alongside us last year, with the last match deciding who would be champions, and it was a very feisty affair at Downend (we won!).

Combine this with the Summer League happenings, when Downend turned up late and we claimed the first sets, as per the rule book, but Downend took huge exception to this! So Andy Jeffery, Chris Cox, Nigel Hellier and Dean Taylor were approaching this match with trepidation.

However, Phil, David, Adrian and Simon were gentlemen, and the match was played in good spirits, with lots of laughter and fair line calls.

Andy and Chris had very comfortable victories of 6-0, 6-3 and 6-3, 6-0, and finished both before Dean and Nigel came off court.

However, Dean and Nigel must have spent much of their first rubber against David and Phil in a sauna, or they had thrown a bucket of water over each other, because they were soaked! A narrow 6-4, 6-3 loss was the result, but they were very annoyed to be 4-2 up in the first and then lost the next eight games on the trot! Nigel and Dean deserved more for their sterling efforts. Their second rubber was a more straightforward 6-3, 6-1 loss.

An overall 6-4 win due to the 35-30 game count was considered a fair result. Having finished at 8.45pm, Downend joined us for several drinks at the Fromeway, and were very good company.