A good win to end the season and so long as Ravenscroft lose to David Lloyd (who are looking to end the season with a 100% record) we will secure 4^th spot. We are now officially the most successful Croxley D team since records began… well website records going back to 2006.

The signs were good when the Langley team started to arrive in dribs & drabs and none of them seemed to know each other. In fact at least two of them asked me if I was a Langley player. Edd & I were re-united after our trial separation and beat the No.1 and No. 2 pairs both by 6-0 but lost to the No.3 pair (who were by far the opposition’s strongest pair). Steve & Niall also beat the No 1 and No 2 pairs before suffering a similar fate to the No 3’s, while the stars of the night were Rob & James who won all 3 of their sets.

Tea was courtesy of young Niall (thanks Dennis…) and was a homemade Shepherd’s Pie and a delicious fruit salad straight from the best grocer’s in town. Only two of the Langley contingent stayed for tea and so we all prayed for the appearance of a certain Mr. Worby, but just when you need him most he was nowhere to be seen…

Finally, a big thank you to all of my team this year. I am sorry I could not play you all in every game but you were all fantastic and let’s hope we can build on this next year.

The expected defeat to David Lloyd who have now played 11 and won 11. However, a much better showing then when we played them in the first game of the season. Considering they have only dropped 11 sets all season we did well to take 2 sets off them. Sorry I will rephrase that...Mike Salva and James Burch did well to take 2 sets off them.  

One of their younger players arrived late (7 ish) and saw us all standing in the clubhouse (due to the rain) still waiting to start the first set. We informed him that he was too late, the game was already over and do you know, I think he actually believed us...!!! 

I suppose the highlight of the evening was when they first arrived and I jokingly suggested that now they have won the league they could have showed up with a team of one legged one armed players, to which one of their players remarked "Well we do have a player with only one eye", which turned out to be perfectly true and yes, he still beat us.

Tea was courtesy of Jim (well Fiona actually, thanks Fiona) and was a nice spread of quiches, pasta, salad, meat and cheese.

So, victory next week against Langley will virtually guarantee us the heady heights of 4th place. Watch this space...

So, Ravenscroft I am afraid you will now always be remembered in CTC folklore as the team that finally curtailed our Lose Win Lose Win sequence. In fact, I was so sure that we would win this one that I almost wrote the match report before the game. So, we arrived full of confidence to play a team we have already beaten this season and as they have the same court surface as us we thought this would be a “stroll in the park”. At 2-1 up after the first round I was mentally preparing my match report (especially as it included a 6-0 demolition of their no. 3 pair by Rob & Niall – lovingly known as “The Two Greengrocers”…yes, Niall is now working in Rob’s shop. I am glad that as well as being a tennis team we also aim to offer employment services…). After round two we had been pegged back to 3-3 but still felt we had enough in the locker to win 2 out of the last 3 sets…so inevitably we went and lost them all. 

The post match talk mainly centred around whether Edd & I should consider a “divorce” or at least a trial separation after our poor form of the last couple of matches. This was further fuelled by speculation that Edd had been spotted playing with another man at the weekend and worse still he appeared to be enjoying it. I feel betrayed that he didn’t tell me…I mean without trust what is left, especially as I had been totally upfront with him about my brief fling with Jon T in a Herts League Match on Sunday. I think both of us will be visiting our “Tennis Guidance Counsellor” aka Wayne McDonald over the Autumn months to see whether our “relationship” is worth fighting for.

Tea was very pleasant especially as it consisted of copious amounts of beer & wine, washed down with salad, ham, cheese, salad and ice creams. I must admit it was very sociable and testament to the jovial conversations with our hosts was the fact that we probably stayed longer than at any other away game this season, and this despite the fact we had the longest drive back.

A defeat to a very "awkward to play" promotion chasing Greenwood Park team. At least we kept our symmetrical sequence of results going... I am not explaining it again, refer to previous reports for details. Edd & I have our own little sequence going too. Won 3 sets, won no sets, won 3 sets, won no sets....so yes you can see where this is going... A resounding win next week with Edd & I winning our 3 sets. Actually I must stop doing this as my nickname within the camp is rapidly becoming "statto"...  

Anyway back to the game. Not much to say really, they are a very clever side and make it very difficult to play against them. They have only lost 2 games this season, both to David Lloyd and are surely going to be departing this division. Meanwhile we are still confident of securing fourth spot but need to win next week against a Ravenscroft side with a similar record to ourselves. 

Tea was courtesy of Rob McKenary...more lasagne than you could possibly imagine. "It all has to be eaten" demanded Rob and I must admit we were really struggling until "as if by magic" Pete Worby appeared right on cue and helped us out.  

Well I did tell you last week that this was a no brainer due to our sequence of results this season... LWLWLWL???. So the answer to the GCSE question posed last week: The next letter in the sequence is of course "W" and so it turned out. We were partially helped by the non-appearance of one of the Langley players, but as we have found out in the past being 3-0 up before the match starts does not always guarantee victory. This time round there were no slip ups though and with Edd & me and Rob & Niall winning against their No.1 and No.2 pairs respectively the match was already won before Jim & Daniel (making his first D team appearance) had to pick up a racquet.

In the second round Rob & Niall despatched a deflated No1 pair and Jim & Daniel narrowly lost to the No.2's. It is always difficult when you have sat out for a set and by the time they got going they were already 3-0 down. Having fought back to 3-3 and eventually 5-5 they finally went down 7-5. In the final round Edd & I beat the No.2's and a sterling performance from Jim & Daniel saw them come through in a tiebreak against the No.1's. So a thoroughly deserved 8-1 victory and well done to Daniel who performed admirably on his first outing.

Tea was the traditional Langley BBQ plus cans of Fosters. It was a close run thing for the title of largest number of burgers consumed but I think Niall possibly sneaked it from Edd with a late surge. Thanks to Jim for being our social ambassador and chatting to the oppo while we focused on stuffing our faces.

So on to next week and of course time now to break the LWLWLWLW sequence...

A disappointing defeat to a strong St Albans team. This was always going to be a tricky match, played on the St Albans "beach" - technically known as heavily sanded Astroturf. Having said that, the tennis was mildy enjoyable and although not expecting to win this one we could & should have run them a lot closer than the scoreline suggests. Edd & I could have taken the first set against their number 1's, while Jim & Rob lost their first match on a tie break. In the final round god only knows what happened to me & Edd against their number 3's other than to say that they had a purple patch and everything they did or tried seemed to come off, most of it wholly unintentionally. Congratulations, though to Steve & David on securing our only set of the day. 

Oh well at least we kept up our symmetrical start to the season - GCSE question of the day: What is the next letter in this mathematical sequence LWLWLWL ??? - roll on next week.

As for the tea, do you sometimes get the feeling that the team have been asked to bring an item each, probably something from their cupboard that is surplus to requirements??? Because this was a strange assortment of various different items that no one person with any culinary prowess would have dreamed of putting together... still, better than the slab of cheese and bread which was served on our last visit there. Sore loser...me...surely not!!!  

P.S. If anyone from St. Albans is reading this, the tea was actually very nice, the astroturf was superb, you were the better team, we were rubbish, you fully deserved your win etc. etc.

Another night of drama and tension for the D team with our fourth 5-4 of the season. After the first two rounds we were 4-2 down...how I will never know!!! Edd & I finally hit form and won our first 2 sets, whilst in the second round both Steve & Niall and Rob & Ian "The Wall" Smithson were 5-2 up in their respective matches but somehow both managed to lose. This meant, of course, that all pairs had to win their last set. 

After a rousing team talk from the Team Captain (move over Capello) both Ian & Rob and myself & Edd won our respective sets 6-3. This tied the match at 4-4 and with Steve & Niall still on court playing the oppo's No.1 pair and with the game score at 4-4 we knew we were in for a nail-biter. 4-4 soon became 6-6 and a tie break. Under the lights (it was now nearly ten o clock) we raced into a 3-1 defecit before rallying back to win the next 5 points and find ourselves in the unlikely position of having 3 match points. 6-3 became 6-4... or so we thought. Steve "eagle eyes" Crocker had spotted that the opposition had served from the wrong side and so in a very authoritative voice declared the point "null & void". After much debate, video replays and a commercial break the match did resume at 6-3 and we took the next point to claim a very sweet victory.

Tea was courtesy of Steve Crocker and consisted of a very nice home made Shepherd's Pie and a lovely Vegetarian Potato Bake thingy, plus Strawberries & Cream... oh and lots of nice bread which I believe may have come courtesy of the Ladies A team who had by now long gone...all enjoyed Al Fresco on a balmy summer's evening.

This was a great victory against a high flying St Albans team. The first round saw myself and Edd take on their no.1 pair in a match which seemed to last forever. In fact I think the other pairs had almost finished their sets while we were still on our first game. After about the 20th deuce one of the opposition suggested that the next point won the whole set which on reflection wasn't a bad suggestion as we went on to lose the set. Fortunately the rest of the team did a little better and we found ourselves 2-1 up.

In the next round Edd & I won comfortably against their No.3 pair and Jim & Rob went down to their 1's. Still on court were Steve & young Niall (in his first D team game of the season). This was a crucial set...win it and we went in to the final round 4-2 up. Swinging one way and then the other the set finally reached tie break stage, which we won 7-2. I must congratulate Niall, who under the expert guidance of Mr. Crocker held his nerve admirably to leave us needing just one win from the final round to clinch a great win.

Steve & Niall coluldn't repeat the heroics of the first two rounds and went down to a good No1 pair. This left Edd & me and Rob & Jim looking for that one win. Rob & Jim eventually went down to the No.3 pair who had improved as the evening wore on. Fortunately Edd & I did not have too much trouble with their No.2 pair despatching them 6-1 and with it the victory.

So, we turned up at David Lloyd full of anticipation and hope for the new season. The fact that their A & B teams are in Division 1 & 2 respectively should, on reflection, have given us some clues about what to expect. It turns out that due to an influx of players they decided to create a new team, which of course has to start in the bottom division. This "new" team consisted of ex-B team players and a couple of impressive youngsters with serves faster than the speed of light... I am not going to go into details, it is too painful...suffice it to say we started at 6.40pm and were finished before the Spurs v Man City game kicked off at 8.00pm.