It was mostly good news this week, with the Men’s scorelines totalling a very positive 28–22, and the Ladies will end up with at least even-stevens when they finish the Thirds match at Saltford.

Whilst the Men’s Seconds and Fifths were disappointed to lose 10–0, they were up against some extremely competent opposition that would not normally be playing in those divisions. In the Fourths, Callum Nowell and Nigel Hellier retained their 100% winning record, and young George Penna (with partner, Shaafiek Christian), started his playing career with two well-earned victories!

Position-wise, the Firsts, Thirds and Fourths are in promotion placings, and the Seconds and Fifths have gathered twelve points from three matches, which is just below the average of fifteen – not perfect, but not awful!

Just a quick update on Derek Beg’s injury reported two weeks ago. Derek has a ruptured Achilles tendon, and the doctors want it to heal naturally rather than undertake surgery. So he will be non-weight-bearing in a boot brace for several weeks, and then recovering with lots of physio for many more weeks afterwards, so don’t expect to see him on court any time soon. I’m sure we all wish him all the very best with the healing process, and hope he gets the chance to watch matches and join in the after-match banter over the next few weeks.

The First team had a convincing win on paper, but this masks the harsh reality of a match that was ground out (only just in the case of Oli and Simon) and could have been a lot closer.

That said, Adam Day put in a sterling performance and played well in support of Nathan Jackson in both rubbers, narrowly losing to the first pair of Yezen and Ansis in the third set, and beating the second pair of David and James comfortably in two sets.

Oli Leatham and Simon Brand dug deep after losing the first set to the second pair, before stepping up a gear (or four!) and taking the next two. Against the first pair, they cruised to a 6–0, 5–3 lead before crashing the gears and finding themselves 6–5 down. Fortunately, the wheels stayed on in the tie break, resulting in a win.

Sodbury went into their match with maximum points from two prior matches, so we knew we were in for a tough ride. Add to this, a mystery illness for our star player, Chris Cox, and the omens were not good. All their players were in their twenties and thirties, and fit and athletic, and we were… not! The clubhouse talk was of their new player, Harry, who was the UK number four at twelve-years-old – could our situation get much worse?

In the circumstances, we put up a good show. Andy Jeffery and Graham Steer’s first rubber against Steve and Chris was the only embarrassing scoreline (6–0, 6–1), but even that masked us being ahead in virtually every game, with loads of game points that we just could not convert.

Otherwise, Chris and Darren Thompson played out of their skin, and took both pairings to three sets, with just a slight fade at the end to lose to Harry and Lee 6–2, 3–6, 1–6 and to Steve and Chris 6–4, 3–6, 0–6. Andy and Graham also managed a three-setter against Harry and Lee, losing 1–6, 6–1, 2–6.

Andy Jeffery and Simon Brand