Colston Mens A v Hanney A, Saturday 3rd May 2014

A battle of Blewburyesque proportions

 The much longed for reuniting of  Tridgell and Stevens did not begin well. Double faults, muffed volleys and ground stokes pushed wide of the tram lines meant that the first set disappeared rather to quickly, 6-2. It was half way through the second set that we finally woke up and brought it back to a tiebreak. They were a competent 1^st pair but having got back into the match we really should have closed out the set but alas no.

Meanwhile Miles and Chris were dealing with a 2^nd pair that were pretty much the same standard as the first- in particular they had a leftie who hit his huge forehand with enormous top spin. We took the first set with ease (1-6) but then they played better (Or Miles and Chris slipped??) and they too found themselves in a tiebreak, which they too- Lost.

Hence it was 1.5 to 0.5 rubbers at the halfway point.

Miles and Chris started well against the 1^st pair (4-6) but then they fought back to take the 2^nd  set and level it.

Gavin and I struggled to work out the leftie and frankly were still not playing well and lost the first 6-3 and then slid to 5-2 down in the second- this was the Blewbury moment!! We took the next 3 with some great serving and by playing the shots that annoyed them- Little dinks to the backhand of the leftie that he just lifted up for Gavin to smash. At 5-5 they got one and we got the next to set up the tiebreak-  but we were in the ascendency now. We raced to a 0-5 lead but then managed to lose the next 5 points before taking a 5-6 lead that set up the point of the match. Many good shots were exchanged before they placed a very good drop shot in Gavin’s tramline when he was well back behind the base line. Enough to level it you might think but Lord Stevens rolled back the years and sprinted (I kid you not!!) and not only got there but hit a cross court winner when the ball was only 2 inches of the ground!  This should have broken their spirit but it didn’t and we found ourselves 4-2 and 40-15 down in the third set before returning to our “dink it and wait for the kill” strategy- we took that game and the next 3 to win the rubber and since Miles and Chris had comfortably taken the third set, we begin the season with a win  2.5 rubbers to 1.5.

I think they’ll be kicking themselves having won 5 of the first 8 sets, but as Gavin always says “It’s a long way from 5 to 6”.  This bodes well as the Colston tradition (with the exception of the battle of Blewbury) is to fade at the end so bring on Wheatley on the 24^th !!