Weald 1 v Crowborough 3 - a disappointing score after the struggle to get there.

Tonight’s result was a bit of a surprise, not to say a bit of embarrassment because the second team had recently played Crowborough and had won 3-2. In our defence we had a weaker team than expected tonight because Peter had to withdrawer late afternoon to babysit his kids. Luckily Trevor was able to step in at short notice to ensure we at least had a full team.

Dave went on first and crept ahead in the first game against his fit and nibble opponent. His lead was a bit short lived, however, as he lost his lead and let his opponent slowly win the first game 9-7. During the next game Dave’s shots were just not up to their normal tightness, which allowed his opponent Andy to take advantage and keep him running. Unfortunately Dave was unable to change his game, and couldn’t outrun his opponent either, so became the first victim of the night 7-9, 4-9, 3-9.

Adam went on court at the same time as his father, but whereas Dave’s game had a fair degree of finesse about it, Adam was at the other end of the scale. Here, the main objective was to simply belt the ball around the court as hard as humanly possible. Adam’s opponent Paul took the lead with this tactic and Adam could only follow suite and do the same. However, Paul could also play some surprisingly short and dainty shots too, which left Adam struggling to know what to do. After loosing the first two games, Adam looked like he was about to give up. Luckily after a quick word in his ear during the interval, he started to change his game. He played a slower game and started to run his opponent around a bit more, which seemed to do the trick and allowed Adam to steadily win the next three games and claim the first (and only) victory of the night 7-9, 5-9, 9-3, 9-2, 9-2.

Trevor went on next and played his “bogeyman” opponent, John who was a quick and fit opponent (for his age). Trevor struggle to put the ball out of John’s reach and quickly went two games down. At the start of the third game Trevor thought he had pulled a muscle in his leg, which slowed him down even further. Shortly after that, he had the same feeling in his other leg, which made him realise that it was only cramp, not a pulled muscle. This didn’t help him play any better in the match, but he ended the game a much happier looser in the knowledge than it was not a pulled muscle, losing 7-9, 4-9, 3-9.

Noel was next on and played a tricky opponent who had a very well disguised boast to the front of the court. Despite it being obvious from the viewing balcony, it was not so obvious from on the court, and Noel was caught out time and time again. By the third game Noel was starting to play fewer errors, and was reading some of the boasts so was able to slowly bur surely level the scores to two games all. The final game didn’t start too well with Noel going quickly 8-1 down and looking out of the game. With a bit of determination though, Noel started to slowly claw his way back into the game and saved several match points against him.  There was a glimmer of hope as he reached 5-8, but with a badly played drop into the tin, Noel had to bow out of the game with his tail between his legs 8-9, 1-9, 9-6, 9-5, 9-6.

It was now up to Paul to try and rescue some badly needed points for the team tonight. He played a good game with his usual selection of crisp and hard shots, which won him the first game. This spurred his opponent on to then take the next two games, leaving Paul everything to do in the fourth game. Rising to the challenge Paul tightened his game and kept the ball nice and tight to the walls, with the odd short shot to front whenever possible.  The pressure was then on in the fifth game end the night a bit more positive for the Weald. Unfortunately Paul’s shots started to loose their tightness, and allowed his opponent to take control and win the final game 9-5. (9-4, 7-9, 7-9, 9-2, 5-9)  Never mind Paul, you were in very good company tonight, and nonetheless earned us some much needed points even if you didn’t win your match.