WRITHLINGTON MEN’S 1sts 2 CLEEVE HILL 2nds 8

Playing against the top-of-the-table is never an easy task, but the quartet of Sam, Tom, Mike (AKA the Chef) and Pat stepped up for Writhlington.

Tom and the Chef teamed up, and in Mike’s fist match for the club, they won a hard-fought three-setter; some solid net play from the Writhlington pair, beating Lee and George.

Their second rubber was another three-setter. Tom maintained a career-best smash success rate of 100% (those of which he connected with!), but even that couldn’t stop Jon and Gary from stealing a three-set win.

In the other rubbers, Sam and Pat played Jon and Gary first and lost a tight opener. Despite Sam playing his best tennis of the season, the Writhlington pair had no less than six set points – none of which could be taken and a second-set tie-breaker was won by Cleeve Hill.

Against George and Lee, Sam and Pat were slow to start and lost the first set. In the second they raced to a 3-0 lead only to be pegged back. Cleeve Hill were more clinical in the tight deuce games and finished the match well.

Great debut from Mike, why didn’t he join earlier!? Great tennis all evening against sporting opposition.

WRITHLINGTON MEN’S 2nds 10 LAKEVIEW 0

Lakeview won the reverse fixture 6-4, and these two teams, plus Bishop Sutton, are in a dogfight to avoid the two relegation places.

However, we know that Bishop Sutton won 8-2 at Knowle, so things are getting interesting!

Leftie, George Penna, made his debut appearance for the Seconds, partnering Chris Cox, and Graham Steer and Andy Jeffery completed the four. Both pairings had virtually identical results tonight – Lakeview sent one poor pair that were thrashed by both Writhlington pairings, but Lakeview’s A pair of Ryan and John had loads of chances to take both rubbers, but tightened up at the wrong moment.

Huge credit to the Writhlington guys for sticking to their task when 5-3 down in deciding sets, both finishing them 7-5 for epic wins!

The final scores were: Chris and George won 6-1, 6-1, and 3-6, 6-2, 7-5, and Graham and Andy won 3-6, 7-5, 1-0 (10-8) and 6-2, 6-0. The Lakeview lads were very fair and sportsmanlike throughout the evening, and even joined us for a pint after!

DL BRISTOL 8 WRITHLINGTON MEN’S 3rds 2

Following a mid-week injury to Sam Thomson, a late reshuffle saw Adam Day join the trio of James Brocksopp, Darren Thompson and Colin Page in travelling to David Lloyd for their match.

Arriving a good twenty minutes before our opposition meant we had plenty of time to warm up and get used to the unfamiliar David Lloyd surface.

Darren and James paired up to take on the weaker pair of Sukri and Mike. This ended up being a closely-fought game, partly because Darren and James found it tough to time our return of serves, so letting the DL pair off with some comfortably-held service games. Had it not been for that, we might not have needed to go into a third set. 6-4, 2-6, 5-7 the final score.

If the first rubber was closely fought, then our second rubber against the A pair of Graeme and Kenny was a battle. We still struggled to return serve on occasion, but created just as many problems for them to deal with on our service games.

Otherwise there was high quality play throughout and we were able to create a handful of chances but failed to convert them. In the end, those missed chances, a few moments we would rather forget, twinned with a couple of lucky net cords for them was enough to see the rubber fall DL’s way with a 7-5, 7-5 win.

Colin and Adam had a difficult task in their first match against Graeme and Kenny, getting used to playing in the David Lloyd conditions against the stronger opposition.

Unfortunately it took time to adapt, but once they did they managed to compete well and even take a 4-2 lead in the second set but we couldn’t quite keep it going and fell to a 6-0, 6-4 loss.

There was also plenty of effort from the Writhlington pair in their second rubber against Sukri and Mike too, yet the score doesn’t reflect that as we came away with a 6-1, 6-2 loss.

WRITHLINGTON LADIES’ 1sts 2 KINGS 8

It is so near to the end of the season that every match counts. We were third in the tables before this evening, but third, fourth and fifth positions in the Division are all within a few points of the fifth-place relegation zone.

Alex and Sarah took on Sally and Anna and quickly worked out a game plan of attacking play. Anna was very handy at the net so we didn’t allow her to get involved too much, and we quickly took the first set, 6-1.

We changed ends and our luck seemed to change also. We made more mistakes and they made less of them and we somehow found ourselves rapidly losing the set, 6-0. The third set we regrouped and tried to get back to our attacking ways but couldn’t find our first set form and lost, 6-3. Disappointed to have not taken the points, we knew we should have won.

Playing against the Avon County pairing of Ellie and Ally, we knew we were in for a tough match. They were a very experienced pairing who played brilliant serve-and-volley games. The balls were pacey and spinny and they were quick to finish off points at the net. Alex’s pace really counted at this time, though, and although we lost the first set 6-0, the second set felt a little more of a contest.

Alex shook them with her zinging backhands and their volley replies were either long or could be picked off by Sarah at the net. We felt we played well and although we lost the set 6-3 we were pleased with our performance during this match.

Mandy and Ces played against their A pairing of Allie and Ellie. Such a good match to be part of even though we lost 3-6, 3-6. Point of the night was Mandy hitting a behind the back volley for a winner. We then played second pairing Sally and Anna, we won 6-3, 6-1.

WRITHLINGTON LADIES’ 2nds 10 KINGS 3rds 0

Kelly and Rachel took on the international pair of Malga and Bolette.

With the Writhlington pair happy to let Malga make all the mistakes, albeit with some brilliance sprinkled about, the straightforward win was with a final score of 6-2, 6-4.

Thinking we might have an earlier finish than usual, they took on the more sedate but experienced pair of Judy and Rachel, and this proved more technical as we started to make more mistakes than them, leading to a 7-5 loss in the first set. With Rachel getting a little flustered, we pulled together to stay in the rallies and then strike when we were ready. This led to a more clinical finish to the rubber. Final score 7-6, 6-3, 6-0 to Writhlington – just ten minutes before the lights went out.

The regular pairing of Janie and Louise had a more torrid evening with a very close match with Judy and Rachel, before finally taking it 7-6, 6-3. They then faced the first pair and this was an up and down affair during and between points with a few animated discussions. They battled on, as they always do, to take the last rubber of the evening 2-6, 6-1, 6-4 just before 10 p.m.

It was not an easy evening with narrow courts with extra lines and a low sun, so we were all delighted with a 10-0 win and we were even organised, for once, for the group photo competition, which we were very happy to win as well.