Captain’s
Log:
Staring
out of my office window at 5pm watching the persistent rain I was
already thinking about alternative plans for the evening when I got a
phone call to say that we would be meeting as planned for our trip to
St. Albans
.
We were reliably informed by the St Albans’ captain that there was
nothing more than a very light drizzle over there, which was strange
when the rest of Hertfordshire was experiencing what the weather
forecasters would describe as “heavy showers”, something most of us
would refer to as p**sing it down…!
So we set off in three cars (well two cars and a van) and worth
mentioning here that despite being the only ones without a map, Jeremy
and I arrived first by some considerable distance. Mind you I did have
the advantage of a highly sophisticated SATNAV system (I phoned a friend
who lives in
St. Albans
and asked him the way…)
As we neared the venue we looked expectantly at the sky, waiting for the
moment we would enter the St. Albans microclimate to find the grey
blanket of cloud replaced by a blue sky with just a smattering of light
fluffy clouds, birds singing in the trees and with the sun breaking
through to dry out the playing surface. Alas, we were to be disappointed
and if anything the rain was worse than when we left Croxley.
After much debate amongst both teams we decided to go ahead with the
match, based mainly on the fact that we had spent so long discussing it
that we were all soaked through anyway. So to the tennis and home
advantage was never more evident than it was here on the rain sodden
Astroturf surface. The
St. Albans
pairings seem to have finely tuned the technique of slicing the ball in
such a way that when it hit the sandy, wet, Astroturf it stopped dead.
Despite our first whitewash of the current campaign all three pairings
played some of their best tennis of the season and many games went to
deuce, but a combination of individual errors on crucial points and the
undoubted home advantage meant that we were unable to take more out of
the match.
We obviously missed the motivational skills of our illustrious captain,
who I believe was off sunning himself on holiday in some exotic location
and should shoulder 100% of the blame for this defeat.
Tea Score 4/10. Rolls, pate & cheese. 5 minutes to buy, 5 minutes to
prepare, 5 minutes to eat…
Paul
Helbrough
