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 | Fixture Details | |  | | |
Home | Return to Division Fixtures
| Nom | Home Player | Nom | Away Player | Result | Games |
| 1 | N Baker | 2 | J Robbins | 1 | 3 | 7/9, 9/3, 5/9, 8/10 | | 2 | J Brewer | 3 | S Culver | 0 | 3 | 6/9, 6/9, 1/9 | | 3 | M Parker | 4 | S Pratt | 1 | 3 | 8/10, 7/9, 9/5, 6/9 | | 4 | T Woods | 5 | C London | 1 | 3 | 3/9, 2/9, 9/2, 4/9 | | 6 | S Henley | 17 | S Rogers | 3 | 2 | 9/2, 9/10, 3/9, 9/3, 10/8 | | | | | | | | | | | Games: | 6 | 14 | |
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| | | Bonus: | 0 | 5 | |
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| | | Result: | 6 | 19 | |
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| Report: | A yuletide jaunt to deepest darkest Kent formed the early Christmas present for PL1 as they visited Rodmersham. With the Rodders boys at full strength for the first time this season and PL without London jnr at no.1 and missing a holidaying Martin T, it looked like a tough evening.
First on Parker v Pratt.
A good contest this one though neither protagonist seemed thrilled at their performance on a cold court. Nicks were chopped in with abandon by both on a regular basis, and anything short and good was extremely difficult to return. WW had a couple of walkabouts as usual, but held it together when it mattered at the end of the games. Two very tight games saw WW into a 2-0 lead. A barrage of mistakes saw the 3rd go by in double quick time and at 1-6 down it looked to be heading for a 5th. A remarkable comeback by WW saw Malc unable to get another point and wrapped up a fine start to PL's evening. Cue ciggies and beer to celebrate by PL's most highly trained athlete.
Next door, Henley v Rogers.
The Grim Reaper had been gratefully borrowed from the 3rd team, and as is his wont, set about making life as hard as possible for his opponent. The usual warm-up game was dispensed with, after which GR got into his stride. Whilst Sam was playing a good game, GR's awkward style was posing a significant challenge. With honours even at 2-2 GR was gutted to have a winning scrape-up at the front called debatable by Neil marking, and Sam just did enough to scrape through at the death to even things up in the match.
Next on Brewer v Culver.
Saw very little of this one, but WB tells me he was on good form, and the scoreboard more than backs this up. Whilst John is not playing much, he remains a formidable opponent, but WB was in his usual uncompromising mood and powered through in straight games.
Next door, Woods v London snr.
This was a scrappy affair. Tom displayed a considerable quantity of ring rust, and the author sporting a heavily strapped war wound on the right hand to avoid a repeat of last week's 'only able to hold racket with 3 fingers' routine did what he needed to to exploit the situation. Decent lengths and some winning trickle boasts from the author and a lot of mistakes from Tom. That summed up the match. The 3rd provided a bit of a change as the author got loose and Tom chopped in winners instead of tins, but normal service was resumed in the 4th.
Last on, Baker v Robbins.
Match of the night really (just, above Sam v GR). JEJ got a big lead in the 1st but only just hung onto it as Neil dug in tenaciously. Neil dominated the 2nd and JEJ got it back together in the 3rd. At the start of the 4th JEJ went sprawling in a heap on that dodgy ankle, and his continued participation looked in considerable doubt. Nevertheless he soldiered on and as only he can, somehow managed to nick the game by outrageous shot play and reading it well. A bravura performance as he was going to retire if he'd lost the 4th.
And so, a fine victory in a perennially difficult fixture, though the Rodders boys felt some of them were misfiring a bit lately. The dinner table talk was centred around "moaners we have known". A bit of alliteration linked the two main targets of this but no names mentioned in these litigious times ... |
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| Author: | HS (and CL) |
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