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 | Fixture Details | |  | | |
Home | Return to Division Fixtures
| Nom | Home Player | Nom | Away Player | Result | Games |
| 4a | Andy Wilde | 1 | Chris Sayer | 1 | 3 | 6/9 9/7 3/9 9/10 | | 5 | Alex Martin | 3 | Gary Mitchell | 3 | 0 | 9/3 9/3 9/7 | | 7 | Simon Grey | 2 | 'PJ' Rutherford | 3 | 2 | 4/9 9/6 7/9 9/2 9/1 | | 8 | Paul James | 5 | Jerry Staffurth | 3 | 0 | 9/7 9/5 9/2 | | 13 | Dan Lark | 7 | Mark Fleming | 3 | 0 | 9/4 9/7 9/7 | | | | | | | | | | | Games: | 13 | 5 | |
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| | | Bonus: | 5 | 0 | |
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| | | Result: | 18 | 5 | |
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| Report: | In spite of fielding a ‘much weakened’ team, Amida showed why they are serious promotion contenders as they brushed aside lower-mid-table Knole in a surprisingly even-tempered encounter.
Missing their two guest stars from their ‘Photo’ Cup triumph of the previous week, Amida had retained the services of wily vet Andy Wilde, who seemed ideally suited to give Knole’s ‘PJ’ a good run for his money in the back-combing and glamorous grandpa contests. In a last-minute blow for the visitors, Captain JJ had broken his racket on Sunday, and the offer of a Junior Whippet from Cider Drinker came too late for him to make the line up.
Chris Sayer was anxious to get on early, so he could rush back to nurse his ailing girlfriend. Shrugging off his disintegrating shoulder, Chris eased to a four set win over Andy, although Andy showed signs of sneaking back in at the end – just losing out in an error-strewn fourth.
Meanwhile, Dan at 5 had been on the receiving end of some of Mark’s generous tinning. This week ‘the court was too hot’, although a better day’s trading in the Far East no doubt took the sting off the loss for Mark.
‘PJ’ was being rested at 3, due to recent groin trouble and the fact that Alex had stuffed him good and proper in their previous encounter. He made a good fist of fulfilling his duty to win an easy match against Simon, going 2-1 up before stamina and a reawakened touch saw Simon breeze past him. Only one moment of controversy marred an otherwise indifferent spell of marking from long-term disabled Amida Captain Mike (The Diplomat) Harrison. Attempting a 'Federer' shot behind his back, 'PJ' clattered against his opponents racket, which was between him and the ball. Marker Mike did not even give a let, claiming that 'PJ' could not have made the shot. [We will never know, but I have never seen him miss one of those - Ed].
After that, Gary, the sacrifice at 2, kept smiling as gentle gorilla Alex made a monkey out of his floundering opponent. Alex allowed Gary to get to 7 in the third, but it always looked like charity or lack of interest on the part of the people’s choice.
Swarthy Paul looks a bit like BCC’s King Lewy in his black shoes. His touch and lack of errors was too good for Jerry, who has benefited from hotel food for the past few weeks and forgot to check it out.
4-1 to Amida was slightly disappointing for Knole. However, it was comforting to know that it was against the ‘B’ team. Afterwards, Andy regaled the visitors and hosts with tales of superstars he has known and the cost of bringing them down for important matches. [Probably not worth it for us minnows, Andy.]
The Shepherd’s Pie afterwards has to have been one of the best ever. The accompanying salad, well dressed and not a limp leaf in sight, topped off a fine evening’s entertainment.
Over supper, there was much discussion of the escalating levels of barely suppressed physical
and verbal violence in the league. This has unfortunately spread down as far as Division 2 and several solutions were aired. However, it was agreed that, without physical or video evidence the chances of a successful civil action were limited. A near miss sighting of a flying racket or a spitfire tongue are not enough without blood or bruises or a willingness on the part of captains to discipline their own players.
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| Author: | JJ |
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