Colston Ladies A v Appleton A, Saturday March 1st 2014

We arrived at the compact rural courts of Appleton on the first glorious day of spring. It was perfect tennis weather for a change with the sun shining and no wind!

Our first pair, the solid reliable combination of Anna and Emily picked their court and we started our warm up. Anna and Emily soon got into their stride and took the first set 6:2. Anna’s strong forehand and consistent volleys were great to watch and with the peppering of aces from Emily (at least half a dozen throughout the afternoon!) they soon took the second set 6:2 as well.

Meanwhile Teresa and I were playing the Appleton first pair. We started well and held our serve against the young very fit girl and her steady match experienced partner. At one point we were 3 all and playing nicely. However a couple of clever shots with good use of the net(!!) from the opposition saw us down a game and we eventually lost the set 3:6. The Appleton team then had warmed up nicely and although we played some great shots with Teresa scrambling some impossible shots back, the experience told and we lost the second set 3:6 also.

A quick regroup and we were all back on court quickly as the black clouds started rolling in and the air got chilly…. Winter tennis after all! Anna and Emily were on a roll and communicating well….. lots of ‘yours if you can’ calls were politely being issued as they powered on and took the set 6:3. A few more aces and beautiful shots and the now tired opposition meant the last set was won by Anna and Emily.

Teresa and I were battling on. We had lots of fast rallies and close games, with comments from the spectators of ‘great shots’. We mixed up our shots which extended each game but unfortunately we lost the first set 1:6. Appleton’s second pair were masters of the cross court lob which they constantly directed at Teresa in the second set.
We were out played on match experience and lost our final set 1:6. We were unlucky not to take more games off them but had a great afternoon of some really good tennis that we should be proud of.

The tea was very welcome and we left Appleton well exercised, well fed and a draw of 4 sets each.