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 | Fixture Details | |  | | |
Home | Return to Division Fixtures
| Nom | Home Player | Nom | Away Player | Result | Games |
| 1 | Chris Sayer | | Ben Chapman | 3 | 0 | 9/6 9/5 9/2 | | 2 | PJ Rutherford | | John McCue | 3 | 0 | 10/8 9/0 9/3 | | 3 | Jerry Staffurth | | Peter Lewis | 3 | 0 | 9/8 9/3 9/4 | | 5 | Mark Fleming | | Paul Bromley | 0 | 3 | 2/9 4/9 6/9 | | 7 | John Creek | | Mark Bass | 3 | 0 | 9/4 9/6 9/1 | | | | | | | | | | | Games: | 12 | 3 | |
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| | | Bonus: | 5 | 0 | |
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| | | Result: | 17 | 3 | |
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| Report: | This was a friendly points-gathering exercise for Knole Park. One which they negotiated without too many alarms.
Poultwood were suffering from injuries and a staff shortage. Knole had to let an Arsenal supporter have the night off. An opportunity eagerly grasped by the Knole captain, who is enjoying his return to pre-retirement form and a new racket. Many of the Knole players had been to Canary Wharf the previous week to watch the pros play – and some tried to replicate what they had learned. John’s new silver ‘Lee Beachill’ worked just like the real thing as he eased past opposing captain Mark Bass. There were even some rallies!
PJ Rutherford faced a ‘fluey’ John McCue and enjoyed the fact that his opponent was subdued. PJ looked smooth and in control most of the time (I only saw the last 4 or 5 points). He is probably anxious to resume his favoured position as Number 1, if he can create a slot for himself. A worrying sign of his itchy feet is his keenness to renew his links to former club Bexley. Let’s hope that ‘tapping’ is not rearing its ugly head in the Priory.
Jerry Staffurth also looked well in control against Peter Lewis. Peter matched him shot for shot in the first game to 8-all, but then showed that he was keen to get off court quickly by calling ‘one’. After that, it was one way traffic.
Mark Fleming v Paul Bromley was a ‘mare’ for one of them. Mark – if indeed he was there at all – had brought along all of the rubbish he had been saving up from earlier in the season. Horrible to watch – it must have been worse for the suffering player himself. The Knole coach was refused access to Mark – on the grounds that he would have inflicted unnecessary suffering to a tormented soul. Even the chance of saving points from slipping away would not have been enough to justify such abuse. To Paul’s credit, he played much better than in his home fixture, dominating the front and centre. And he did not allow Mark’s inner turmoil to distract him.
To bring some bright colour back to the evening the 1s finished off with proper squash. Ben Chapman – a recent addition to Poultwood’s 2nd team - showed flashes of class. Some lovely shots, often followed by equally bad ones. Chris Sayer did the same - but not nearly so often - and appeared to be playing well within himself. Ben needs to put on some weight, but declined the offer of trifle with extra cream or a second helping of paté. Knole do such a good spread, that visiting teams really should make more effort to bring their appetites. Well done to Poultwood, though, for keeping the bar bill to manageable proportions. They can come again!
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| Author: | John Creek |
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