Sunday 18th March 2012

5-4

John W, Dave W | Chris R, Dave R | David P, Mark R

The same team for two matches in a row? Unheard of! A really good win for the team against league-topping Paces. It’s a very tight league with no one team able to differentiate themselves from the rest. In the end we ran out 5-4 winners with the match going down to the deciding rubber at 4-4. Amazingly, I managed not to choke (for the second time this season!) and Mark and I closed out the rubber in two ends. John and Dave again did us proud with by winning all three of their rubbers although they were pushed hard all the way. Chris and Dave I’m sure will have better nights so we’ll just chalk this one down to experience 😉

Thursday 23rd February 2012

6-3

John W, Dave W | Chris R, Dave R | David P, Mark R

An important win for the Mens Plastics team against those young whippersnappers from the University. The match was played in a good spirit and there were lots of close games. In the end, the Walkers won all three of their rubbers, Chris and Dave won a couple and Mark and myself secured a single rubber. It was good to have the full team available again; a situation that has been all too infrequent this season. Hopefully the team can kick on from here and win a few more matches in order to secure our future in the second division.

Wednesday 1st February 2012

2-7

John W, Dave W | Andrew B, Hyung-Joo L | David P, Mark R

With Dave Randall on long term injury and Chris unable to play, we were lucky enough to secure the services of Hyung-Joo and Andrew for our match against Abbeydale. The match was played in a good spirit and the final scoreline doesn’t accurately reflect how close the match really was. Mark and I took two of our rubbers to three ends and in the third rubber we lost both games narrowly (23-21 in the second). Once again, we ended up relying on the Walkers to secure points but unfortunately none of the other pairs managed to contribute.

After a good start to the season, our team has suffered a little recently and our results need to improve somewhat or we will find ourselves in a relegation battle.

Final score 4-5.  Players: Dave W. Andrew B. Hyung-Joo L. Charlotte W. Linda M. Dawn P. (C)

A good game played by the combined team – and a big thank you to Hyung Joo and Andrew for standing in for Chris and Willie.  It was a close call and all games were played with a positive and fair attitude.

Well done Wisewood 2 for pipping us at the post in the final game and securing a win!

Final Score 5-4 to Oakbrook

3.1.12 – The first match back after the Christmas Break and boy we knew it!

We got off to a flying start with Chris and Dave winning their rubber in 2 and Charlotte and Linda winning their ladies in 3 (despite a confusion at the end with the scores…) – phew!  Unfortunately Charlotte and Dawn managed to lose their ladies in 3 (we are blaming the cookies and meatballs – I’ll say no more!) and Andrew and Dave lost theirs.  There we found ourselves at 2 – 2 and everything to play for.  The games continued and we found ourselves at 4-4 and the last game on court was Andrew and Dawn’s   They lost the first match by quite a few points, then changed their game plan and managed to win the second.  With everything to play for (fortunately they didn’t know they were playing the decider!) the game was close all the way through but eventually they won the final end 21-17.

A great match, with good sportsmanship from both teams and we look forward to the re-match when hopefully we’ll all be feeling a little fitter and a little less full of mince pies and christmas cake!

Tuesday 13th December 2011

9-0

Simon O, Ed S | Nick F, Simon T | David W, John W

The University Staff are the second team to have entered the feathers league for the first time this year. After welcoming Abbeydale E team by beating them, we hoped to extend a similar welcome to the Uni Staff.

Simon O and Ed started off against their first pair, in one of the longest games we’ve had this year. The Staff’s first pair had an unusually good defence but weak attack, so many of the points were decided by whether or not Simon and Ed hit a winner, or hit it out. Eventually they managed to hit slightly more in than out, and won 21-19 19-21 21-17.

Nick and Simon T found it very similar when they played the first pair and had to maintain consistency to break the solid defence. By varying between excellent and dreadful play, they took it close, and despite looking down-and-out at numerous times, they came back from 17-20 in the final end to win 13-21 21-16 22-20. Hopefully that helped clear Nick’s cold!

Meanwhile we were finding the Staff’s second and third pairs an easier prospect with straight-set wins each time. Simon O and Ed made short work of their games, scoring at twice the speed of their opponents, with a total of 84-40 across both, while Nick and Simon notched up 84-53. David and John, substitutes for the feathers team once again (and therefore now actually our second most regular pairing despite not officially being in the team!) scored a similar 84-55.

For a historic first 9-0 win in the feathers league for at least half a decade, David and John needed to beat the Staff’s resilient first pair. But rather than taking it to three games and winning by a tiny margin, they decided to tease the official feathers team members by making it look easy, and winning 21-16 21-13.