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 | Fixture Details | |  | | |
Home | Return to Division Fixtures
| Nom | Home Player | Nom | Away Player | Result | Games |
| 1-1 | Guy Olby | 1-1 | Craig Hulbert | 3 | 0 | 9-0, 9-0, 9-2 | | 1-5 | Neil Cooper | 1-2 | Keith Hulbert | 0 | 3 | 1-9, 5-9, 6-9 | | 1-6 | Alisdair Shapcott | 1-3 | Hany Abou Taleb | 1 | 3 | 3-9, 5-9, 9-7, 6-9 | | 1-7 | Simon Joyce | 1-4 | Tony Lake | 3 | 2 | 9-7, 10-8, 3-9, 7-9, 9-4 | | 1-8 | Ian Smith | 1-6 | Chris O'Brien | 3 | 1 | 9-7, 9-6, 2-9, 9-3 | | | | | | | | | | | Games: | 10 | 9 | |
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| | | Bonus: | 5 | 0 | |
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| | | Result: | 15 | 9 | |
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| Report: | A close match at Beckenham with the high drama yet dubious quality 4th string match ultimately deciding the game.
1's on first and, although I didn't see any of it, it was one way traffic as expected. Craig in the end deciding his major impact on the night was to mark one of the later games. Good luck with Mr Brewer tomorrow night mate!
On the other court were the 4's and this must have been almost as painful to watch as it was to play in. A see-saw first two games saw Si take a 2-0 lead but they were both close enough to test his slowly improving fitness, Tony unlucky not to nick either. An ill-advised burp when walking on court at the start of the third only brought back the even more ill-advised bag of McCoy's eaten around 6pm and Tony took full advantage, taking it easily. The 4th was going much the same way with Si's error count increasing and Tony looking completely in control at 7-3. Si suddenly went on a march though and had a glorious opportunity to get a match ball at 7-7, the result? Tin, clearly. Tony was ruthless and we were into a 5th. Both player were taking points in some punishing rallys but Si was tending to take 2 for each of Tony's 1. Ultimately Si got to match ball and was rather grateful for a miraculous (lucky) pick-up off the frame that put Tony out of position to close it out. Both players absolutely exhausted.
Can't believe I've written this much and it's only 1-1 but I like to talk about myself when I win.
Next Hany and Al, a good competitive match this one once Al got into it. Very much a tale of who was dominating the front of the court, Hany took full advantage of the extra experience in the first two before Al slowly took control and a healthy lead in the 3rd. Hany, always dangerous when you let him play the way he wants, got back into it, only for a surprising error to cost him on game ball. Into the 4th and it was looking tight for a while, again control of the front of court proving crucial for each player. Hany was finally able to pull clear late in the game with some clinical kills and seal the win.
Ian and Chris were on the other court and Ian managed to shade a tight first, the delay in taking some of his shots knocking Chris out of his rhythm. A similar pattern followed in the second and both games were decided on a couple of crucial points but Ian saw them through. Hany provided some advice before the third (though it started out as just telling Chris he was playing sh!t), and it worked as Chris found his line and length to take it into the 4th. Ian got back into it from here on and closed it out relatively comfortably with more than a couple cracking winners, securing the win for Beckenham in the process
Last on were Neil and Keith and I didn't see too much but Neil's few weeks of holidays and stag do's probably didn't lead to the greatest performance, though Keith is always a tricky customer and took a well deserved win.
So a win for Beckenham in an important bottom of the table clash, though not by as many points as would have been liked. Credit to Cascades for keeping the deficit down. An exciting finish to the season beckons... |
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| Author: | Si |
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