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| Report: | PL 1 entertained Canterbury last night on a balmy evening. With the casualty list growing, the home team were a little dismayed to see Canterbury at close to full strength, but despite this it turned out to be a highly competitive match, and for once (probably never to be repeated), the author thought PAR was a good idea! The 4th team had made an executive decision that they were having the "show courts" by the time I'd arrived, and enthusiasm for using court 4 was in short supply.
First up Pratt v Brewer.
I suspect these two have probably played about as much as each other of late - i.e. not much. Only really saw the 1st before marking duties on the graveyard court ensued, and WW looked to be on the receiving end most of the time with too many in the tin. A few choice words from the coaching team before departing saw Steve (evidently) put in a sterling effort to take the 2nd, but sadly this seemed to extract a toll with the 3rd being a rout. Back on track for the 4th though and WW just failed to cross the finishing line in that one to get Canterbury off to a good start.
Over in the backwoods - Culver v May.
Simon seems to be rather rejuvenated in results terms after a difficult winter season, and despite still playing little squash, the triathlons and marathons etc seemed to have done the fitness and movement no harm whatsoever. Tom struggled to get into this one and was clearly not very happy with his performance. In truth though, the first two games were close fought whatever the scores say and it was only the 3rd where Tom looked to have let his frustration get the better of him. Anyone who's played Simon can sympathise!
Next on back in civilisation, Nickalls v Wardman.
Both last minute subs put in a good shift in this one. Saw very little of it, but the score speaks for itself, with the match see-sawing either way. Tom felt he should have snuck a close 5th, but then I dare say Kieran felt the same. Canterbury nosing ahead again.
Reluctantly back on court 4 - London snr v Henley.
By the middle of the 5th in this match the author was starting to rue the day he saw the name Henley on the score sheet. For the 2nd time in a few weeks a 2-0 lead against a Henley was whittled away after a good start by the author. The May coaching manual had been produced at the end of the 2nd, and clearly the advice had been something along the lines of "smack the cr*p out of everything, he's an old git". This was followed to the letter and it was only in the latter half of the game that the author adapted to this new tactic and clawed it back, though not quite far enough. The 4th was over very quickly and the author was soon staring down the barrel at 1-6. In true "there's no such thing as a PAR comeback" fashion though, and thanks to the fact that the author had dragged the pace back down again, the comeback was successfully negotiated to level the match score.
Last on, the decider - Young v Harrison.
This was a cracking culmination to the match. Zeb played out of his skin for 2.75 games with thunderous drives mixed with several nicks and nice touch at the front. Duane hung in there and showed remarkable resilience to weather the storm. You always felt that Zeb's method of generating pace was going to extract far more of a toll than Duane's. One involves throwing the entire body weight into it, whilst the other is generated largely from the wrist. So it proved. Zeb gradually ran out of steam and Duane capitalised to round off a great match. Full marks to each player for 100% effort.
And so the score draw (minus the win bonus) saw an end to the proceedings before repairing to the bar for Zeb and Duane to continue melting for half an hour or more whilst tucking in to a summery lasagna. An enjoyable encounter. |
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| Author: | CL |
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