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 | Fixture Details | |  | | |
Home | Return to Division Fixtures
| Nom | Home Player | Nom | Away Player | Result | Games |
| 1 | J.Robbins | 1 | G.Olby | 1 | 3 | 9/5 5/9 4/9 2/9 | | 6 | C.London | 2 | L.Greenwood | 3 | 0 | 9/7 9/4 10/8 | | 7 | S.Pratt | 3 | M.Gill | 3 | 1 | 10/8 3/9 9/7 9/3 | | 12 | S.Grey | 4 | P.Eneas | 1 | 3 | 7/9 0/9 9/7 6/9 | | 17 | M.Currie | 5 | S.Joyce | 3 | 2 | 5/9 8/10 9/6 9/2 9/2 | | | | | | | | | | | Games: | 11 | 9 | |
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| | | Bonus: | 5 | 0 | |
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| | | Result: | 16 | 9 | |
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| Report: | Having read DC's report I think I'm probably wasting my time with this one. Very entertaining DC, and VERY restrained on the Ted front (after our chat about proceedings).
Anyway, on to more mundane matters - PL1 playing host to current Div 1 whipping boys Beckenham. Well at the end of this evening you could have been forgiven for thinking it was PL1 who'd been whipping boys and pulled off a Houdini act. Becks are obviously seeing the benefit of their intense Xmas training routines and PL1 clearly aren't.
First up Pratt v Gill.
WW as usual gagging to get on and away before his match fee could be collected. This was pretty standard fare from WW, with marker JEJ observing "this is frustrating isn't it?" Well James, it is until you've seen it a million times after which it becomes c'est la vie. Anyway, Matt produced more drop shots in this match than he did in three years playing for PL, and pretty good they were too. The 1st and 3rd were pretty tight, both going to WW, with the 2nd and 4th comfortable (one either way). 3-1 to Steve. Despite the cap's exhortations to JEJ to collect WW's match fee before he scarpered, the former made the mistake of nipping to the Gents first, by which time WW was heading for the hills (or should I say Prague). Some things never change.
Out in the cold dark (very, with two lights out of action) wilds of court 4, Currie v Joyce.
This turned out to be a battle royal. Simon used his speed and crisp volleying to good effect in the first two games. Mike had been browbeaten by PL coaching staff to keep it to a length and cut out the flicky drop shots. Basically - whack it.
To give him his due, he tried very hard to do this, but just tinned a few too many, narrowly missing out on a big comeback in the 2nd. Still, undaunted he kept plugging away, and as his consistency levels rose, Simon began to feel the pace (though it appeared to be more a mental thing than physical). The 3rd was tight, but after that Mike turned on the afterburners, leaving Simon looking pretty dejected for his sterling efforts. 3-2 to Mike.
Meanwhile back in the civilised world of court 3, Robbins v Olby.
JEJ hoped to have benefitted from his own Xmas training. Despite gym use and running, what he forgot to do was play a single game since the last match on Dec 11th. After winning the 1st and going up 5-1 in the 2nd, to quote his own words "my head just went". It has to be said that this is pretty unusual for JEJ (who probably ought to be rechristened for this one NQEJ - as in Not Quite). Still, Guy looked pretty sharp and ran out a deserved 3-1 winner.
Back in the darkness - London snr v Greenwood.
The author having been run ragged by London jnr on several occasions over the break, hoped to be in good form. Well it felt like about a 6 out of 10 at best. Probably at least partly due to the super-glue on the walls of court 4 (well that's my story anyway). Very tight 1st and 3rd sandwiching a reasonably comfortable 2nd. The 3rd in particular saw Lee off to a blinding 6-0 start. The author (aided and abetted by a few mistakes by Lee) then proceeded to reel him in (just) to record a 3-0 win and secure the team win.
Last on (and I saw two points of this) were Grey v Eneas.
Paul looks to have been in charge for the first two with a 9-0 in the 2nd, but Simon dug in to salvage a team point by taking the 3rd. The 4th looked from the little bit I saw to be a tight affair with Paul producing a couple of clinical winners at the business end to prove that he's a tough customer at no.4.
Last but not least, the high number of early leavers and the early disappearance of spectator McMullen (had me worried for a while there Geoff) meant that the PL bar bill was a nice late Xmas present. A triumph when thinking back to Beckenham teams of old with their regular £100 to £200 slates (and this was 15+ years ago). |
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| Author: | Clive London |
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