The Match

Well what a titanic struggle that was .......

All started so well with sacrificial lambs M&J being sent out as first pair only to record an almost regulation straight sets win over the Whitestone first pair, quickly followed by D&H recording an equally emphatic win over the second pair.

2-0 up and time for the new captain and her debutant to push home the early advantage, sadly the wonderful combination of youth and the experienced "older" woman was not enough to overcome what was clearly the best opposition pair despite going to three in a valiant attempt.

This win sparked a minor opposition revival with their first pair taking the next rubber against D&H despite resolute defiance.

Score now 2-2

F&A back on court and with an impressive display of scampering by Adam coupled by Fiona's deft? (I think you spell it with an e) play at the net they eventually wore down the second pairing to record a win in the third game. At the same time M&J were struggling to recapture their consistency against the best of the Whitestone pairs and despite going 7-0 in the first game lost out, came back strongly in the second to win 15-6 but eventually faded away in the decider to lose 15-12.

Score now 3-3

All to play for as D&H went on court out of order with the time now well after 9 o'clock to tackle the as yet undefeated 3rd pair, the rubber was by no means one sided but try as they might they could not gain the upper hand and after a long struggle lost out in straight sets. Enter F&A to halt our inexorable slide towards defeat, a feat not helped by them losing the opening game quite swiftly...... time for one of Fiona's pep talks to her young consort. Clearly Adam was enthused by these words of encouragement as he proceeded to fly to all corners of the court whilst Fiona applied the "coup de hasard" at the net to eventually take the rubber in the third.

Score now 4-4 .....time now 21:40

M&J back on court after a long wait to try and seal the victory, started well and were quickly 5-0 up before the opposition gathered themselves, a long and arduous series of games ensued with plenty of effort but perhaps not enough skill punctuated by several "debates" over line calls. After an "exchange of views" we won the middle game to send the entire match result into overtime with it being well after 10pm by then, a sizeable crowd had for some reason gathered to watch the spectacle of no one scoring any points for an age before our rather one dimensional clear and smash policy finally prevailed to take the third 15-12. Cue much clapping, shouting and general relief that we could finally claim victory and head for the pub ..........

Well played everyone especially the "new boy" and many thanks to the unpaid spectators for enduring the never ending final rubber.

The Match

Well another one goes to the wire ....

Captain F was let down by her new young and speedy partner, he claimed he was unfit but then we know how demanding she can be ..... never mind there's plenty more young blood in the wings so step forward Jonathan for his turn. On as first pair and in a see-saw match they eventually overcame the opposition to record a 15-13, 9-15, 15-6 win. At the same time M&J were underway against the second pair, only a few rallies in and ping one Yonex racquet with a broken head thanks to a LH/RH collision last Friday with Steve B, compensation cheque in the post ??. Equipped with a spare the match was back on and with a combination of Mary's poise at the front and much scampering at the back the rubber was won 15-7, 15-12.

2-0 up and over to D&H to push home the early advantage, they quickly found that the Ash Green third pair were nothing of the sort but really their first pair. Undaunted they had a real go in the opening game and only lost out by the narrowest of margins 16-17, the second game was equally contested but the final score of 4-15 failed to reflect the efforts made. M&J now back on court only to slump to a thoroughly unsatisfactory 6-15 loss, not at all what was needed. A rethink of tactics and rather more effort and the next game was won 15-11, the decider was close throughout but we eventually sneaked home 17-15 thanks to the odd net chord and the inevitable debated line call 17-15.

3-1 up and confidence restored, but sadly not for long as D&H and F&J found their opponents had acclimatised to the hall with both losing rather easier than they would have liked.

Score now 3-3 F&J back on court and finding the Ash Green second pair more to their liking cruised to a quick 15-10, 15-9 win, meanwhile on the other court D&H were battling hard against the first pair but despite a relatively even game found themselves slipping to a 7-15 loss, undeterred they produced a typical battling performance with Harry throwing himself about to reach the unreachable they took the rubber to three by winning 15-10. The decider was suitably competitive but we were never quite in charge of events losing out 8-15.

Score now 4-4  and all up to M&J to reproduce their match winning performance from the last match, all the elements were in place including a small band of intrepid spectators, the opening game against their third/first pair was closely fought but we were never quite in tune with our destiny and despite a succession of recoveries lost out 12-15. The second game was never going our way as the tactic of unsportingly hitting the shuttle at the lady failed to work to our advantage, it just kept coming back no matter how hard you hit it! We rallied well at the end to come back from being 5-14 down but could only delay the inevitable as Ash Green won 15-9 and it was all over.

Thanks to Jonathan for gamely providing the youthful exuberance in the absence a "poorly" Adam.

One line summary
Captain Fiona for once had no comment apart from banning all flowery reports

On the night
With reporting restrictions in place this report will be brief, to the point and lacking in any humour probably ...
Well as you can see we lost, I could point to the distractions of being surrounded by a carnival atmosphere with pole vaulting to the left and trampolining to the right or the wonders of plastic shuttles. The real match report would probably say "just not good enough" and "poor away form"  As an example how did J&J manage to lose their final game when they were 11-2 up having turned at 8-0, but lose they did.

Not much I can say about this as we were well beaten by a very good team. With 2 matches being played between 3 courts, it was difficult to keep any momentum going as we were waiting around quite a bit between games. All 3 men in the BB team were very good and in particular their 3rd man who would easily slot into Premier.

Only one rubber went to 3 with Roy and Mary giving us faint hope of avoiding the whitewash, but alas it was not to be !

Even our captain was very quiet due to her suffering from a head cold so I can't make the customary derisive remarks that she usually warrants. Never mind, there's always the next match, I'm sure she won't let us down.

One line summary: We came second!

We fought hard against a very good team and despite a valiant effort by all, the stronger side won.  The score doesn’t actually reflect that we all had some very good games with Phil and Mary twice going to three, beating the first pair and losing to the second pair. Strangely, everyone lost to the third pair!

Thank you to Phil Guest and Roy for stepping into the breach – we have only managed to put out a full team once this season for one reason and another so I'm citing that as the reason for yet another defeat!!

Onward and upward!!

In a freezing venue (maybe Coventry Council are trying to save cash, the meanies!) Mixed 3 battled valiantly but were sadly beaten 7-2 (14 games to 5).  Phil & Fiona had a close run-in with their first pair, managing to beat them after a slow start.  They then just lost out to the second pair and despatched the third pair with relative ease.  Roy and Mary put up a good fight against all three pairs, going to three against the third pair but just lost out, and Debbie and Harry tried equally hard but were sadly beaten by a relatively strong team.   The venue left a lot to be desired as it was bitterly cold so, sadly, the evening could not be said to be enjoyable - sorry folks!

A sad start to the new year but hey ho...life goes on! 

PS  Hurry up and get better John - I need your magic touch with the match report - 'scribe to the stars' - mine are so boring, even I fall asleep!

The Match

Really very little to say, we arrived none too confident having recently lost to Barkers away 0-9 and matters got no better when they turned up with virtually the same team.  

Reluctantly M&J set off against the first pair and quickly discovered they were several divisions better than us, all too soon we had lost barely troubling the scorekeeper. A similar fate awaited F&P as they failed to reach double figures in either game, at the same time there was a brief moment of promise as D&H won their opening game 15-12 and looked as if they would give us some hope. This illusion was short lived as the BB third pair strolled through the middle game to win 15-3, the decider was a rather closer affair that could easily have gone our way but in the end it was a case of plenty of endeavour but not enough points, we lost 9-15.

F&P now tried and failed to make any impression on the BB first pair, their total score could unfortunately easily be counted on one hand .... Next up were D&H and again they gave every impression that they were in control winning the opening game 15-11, this merely encouraged the opposition to play properly and win the next game 15-3. The final game was close throughout and with plenty of effort by our pair they pulled back from 9-13 down to get to 13 all only to suffer service fatigue and eventually lose out 13-15

Score now 0-5 and all over as a match

M&J managed to prevent a clean sweep by convincingly beating the third pair 15-10, 15-4 but it was all too little too late.

Just to prove that the BB first pair really were too good for us D&H failed to make any inroads, we lost comprehensively is the polite way of putting it.

The final rubbers should be consigned into obscurity as we lost those equally easily despite the vocal support of our one man cheerleader Roy although I must say he really doesn't have the legs and other important attributes required for the job.

Conclusion: Those of you who decided not to come down and watch made a wise choice ..... looks like relegation looms unless we miraculously win a few soon.