This match was a re-arranged fixture after the previous match was abandoned a few weeks previously. The rained off fixture had Radlett 4-2 up after 2 rounds (hence 2 scorecards) so perhaps it was poetic justice for the score in this match to be similarly 4-2 to Radlett after 2 rounds.  

Radlett fielded a strong side including 2 young girls (Charlie & Chloe) who we have never seen before.  

Laura and I got off to a flyer against the No. 1 pair Olly and Charlie and recorded a shock (well it was to me anyway!) win by 6-2. Despite being 4-1 up Richard & Liz lost theor opener 5-7. With Liz serving at 5-6 she tried that old trick of blaming a 1st serve at the receiver’s partner but despite claiming the point sadly she dropped her serve and that was the end of that set. Colin Midson and Liz Burch went down 3-6 to the 3rd pair.  

The 2nd round saw Colin and Liz being our only success – they managed to win their set by 6-4. Liz and Boycie went down 4-6 to the 3rd pair and Laura and I were whitewashed by Chloe and Lee. For the first 5 games we almost matched them with a number of deuces and 30 alls but Chloe in particular was outstanding. The best lady that I have ever played against (and it takes a lot to impress me!).  

The 3rd round saw Laura and I record another excellent set win by 6-4 in a terrific set – it was very pleasant to play against Alex and Louise. Both the other Croxley pairs went down 3-6 which was no disgrace.  

No tea score as we decided to head back homewards and forego the offer of a take-away pizza. No marks to Colin Midson for deciding to head down Whippendell Rd and battle the traffic on the way to Radlett  

Pete Worby

Match Report from the 1st Abandoned game  

Again, we faced a strong Radlett team sprinkled with international stars – we were 2-4 down in sets and heading for defeat when the heavens opened. Despite the attempts by Radlett’s non playing captain Lee to try and persuade us to continue playing we held firm and pointed out that it was absolutely chucking it down and that there was lots of thunder and lightening too. The suggestion that we eat tea, give it an hour or so was not met with any enthusiasm by us – Kate pointed out that she couldn’t possibly play tennis straight after a meal as she would suffer from indigestion. So, we ate tea,,,,,,,,,,,and did it stop raining? Answer = no.  

Richard and Liz may well argue that these sets should not be counted in the official statistics but Colin Kate Laura and myself could well disagree.  

Tea Score: I think this probably deserved a 7/10. Jacket potatoes with tuna or cheese fillings as I recall. I think there was warm rolls baked in the oven too.  

Pete Worby

With Liz Burch back in the fold after a lengthy break in the USA, Laura back from her Hen week away and myself driving back from Swanage we were at full strength with our nominated 6 players.  

The 1st round saw just myself and Laura win as we just nicked a set where we never entirely got going – we played in fits and bursts. At the same time, Colin and Liz lost a fairly close one to the No. 1 pair and Boycie/Kate went down 5-7 after having been 5-4 up.

The match score was pulled back to 3-3 after the 2nd round with Liz/Colin beating the 3rd pair and Laura and myself playing very well to beat the strong Chorleywood 2nd pair. Again, Boycie and Kate went down 5-7 after having been ahead.  

The 3rd round saw Richard and Kate pull themselves together to record their 1st set win of the night but Colin/Liz went down to the 2nd pair. That left the score at 4-4 in sets as various members of both teams left the courts. At this point Laura and I had advanced to 5-2 in our match against the Chorleywood 1st pair. At this stage a match point came and went and the set score advanced to 5-3. As I walked to the pavilion end to serve I was encouraged by Richard’s father in law who told me that all I had to do was serve out to win. As I picked up 2 balls at the back of the court having gone love 30 down he helpfully commented “you didn’t want to do that”. Fortunately, 4 points later, a couple of decent serves from me and a couple of decent volleys from Laura, we had won the set and Croxley had won the match.

We then had a splendid supper of chicken curry, vegetable curry, pilau rice, nan bread thanks to Sharon who once again excelled. It’s another 9/10 from the team and it must have been good as Colin Hewett took all the leftovers home with him.  

Pete Worby

Another 5-4 win against Greenwood Park – the same score as at their place 3 weeks earlier. This time though, Greenwood Park fielded a completely different team whilst we were unchanged apart from Colin Midson who was in for Laurence Burch.  

Laura and I were the only successes in the 1^st round with Richard & Kate going down 5-7 after having been 5-2 up. Colin & Anna, as they often do, started by dropping their first set.  

The 2^nd round saw us claw it back to 3-3 with just Boycie/Kate missing out.  

We won the 3^rd round with just Laura and I being the losers. Our big hitting simply wasn’t big enough as the experienced guy in the oppositions 1^st pair appeared to toy with us. Despite one or two in our team not being hugely impressed with him I thought he was very clever and the scores of 6-4, 6-4 and 6-1 showed that he and his partner Joy were the stars of the evening.

Supper was very Quiche orientated with Jacket potatoes – I guess a 7/10. At least it was hot!

This was a tough match against a team that are near the top of the league and looking for promotion. With the 2 Liz’s unavailable and Anna also elsewhere I decided to bring in young Jennie Wright in the hope that her big groundstrokes would pay off. Understandably, she was a little nervous on her debut but her scores with Colin Hewett of 4-6, 3-6 and 4-6 show that they weren’t far off. A little more consistency is the order of the day but well done.

Boycie and Kate similarly just came up short going down 5-7, 5-7 and 5-7. A case of so near yet so far.

Myself and Laura had a good evenings tennis. We lost in a tie break to the number one pair after about an hour – all the more disappointing because we had a set point at 5-3 and three set points at 5-4. Laura will recall her missed backhand volley and I will recall my drop shot nestling in the net. However, we won our other 2 sets fairly well (6-3 and 6-1).

Supper was excellent – a strong contender for tea of the season. It’s got to be a 9/10 – thanks to Michelle (she can cook for me any day – and she drinks beer and smokes roll ups too).

A good win this against a useful Radlett team. Our first meeting of the season with young Chris from Radlett who scared me in the knock up with his big forehand but despite this some great stuff from Laura saw us to a 6-3 win. At the same time, Kate and RB got off to a 7-5 win v the oppo 3^rd pair – but their evening was to get worse. A slow to settle Barone/Hewett combo saw them lose to the Radlett 1^st pair.  

The 2^nd round saw a big 6-2 win for myself and Laura against the No 1 pair with Colin and Anna getting their act together. Boycie started his run towards washing up duties by going down with Kate 2-6 to the 2^nd pair. That meant we were 4-2 up in the match.  

The 3^rd round saw further victories for Laura & myself, and Colin & Anna. Sadly, the Boycemeister had to wash up.  

It was very nice of Kate to offer to cater at short notice, particularly as she had spent the afternoon at hospital with Jim. A solid performance at 6.5/10.

A bit of a struggle this one. For once, Laura and I failed to hit the ground running and we went down 3-6 to the 1^st pair – we really did not play that well. Fortunately, we picked up as the evening went on and we narrowly beat the 2^nd pair and then had a fairly easy win against the 3rds.  

Laurence and Anna struggled early on and lost their first 2 sets. Doing the opposite, Boycie and Kate won their first 2 sets – a particularly good win in the opener 6-1 against the GP number 2 pair.  

The match was poised 3-3 after 2 rounds. Laura and I swiftly put Croxley 4-3 up and we then had to watch as Boycie and Kate slipped to a loss to make the match score 4-4. Fortunately, Anna and Laurence turned from villains to heroes as they won the last set on court to ensure hugs and kisses all round.

An enjoyable supper as we discussed Laurence’s forthcoming School Prom and the opposition looked for apple pie for him. A decent supper if I recall correctly so a solid 7/10 score. Nice people.

2 Match reports:

A pretty solid performance from the 6 of us with the Chorleywood 2nd pair offering the sternest resistance. Liz and Colin were taken to a tie break in the final round but that did at least give the Lasagnes in the oven time to brown and crisp.

The main talking points centred around “hindrance rules”, Boycie’s new Federer shorts, Laura’s new TKMax skirt and the unbroken in Norwich tea towels in the Clubhouse. 

A worthy contender for “Tea of the Season” from Mrs Burch. Liz provided 2 delicious home cooked lasagnes together with the usual accompanying salad & bread & coleslaw followed by hot lemon meringue pie and something else equally as scrummy.  Well worth a 9/10 in my book.

Pete Worby

A fine dry evening in pleasant company, but where a number of questions were asked of the Team ….. the most pressing of which seemed to be (announced, a la ‘ Britain ’s got Talent’, in reverse order).

3. What happens when a ball is dropped on Court, mid point
2. Do you stir cake mixture (particularly for a chocolate cake) clockwise or anti-clockwise, and (most important of all)
1. How long does it take to ‘break-in’ a Tea Towel (particularly one from Norwich ).

There were also a number of ‘side shows’ like how does Mrs Burch make her Lasagne (and can we have some more please), why would you take your dog for a walk when you’re meant to be playing a match, and did anyone know that there is a re-make of Reggie Perrin on the TV.

With that level of ‘quality debate’ (and the smell of baked Lasagne ‘wafting’ from the Kitchen) it’s a wonder that Croxley managed to focus on the tennis at all ….. but fortunately they did. 

On Court, there was a steady ‘procession’ of wins being chalked up, and Croxley, for the second match running against this opposition recorded a 9-0 … was really 8, but the Chorleywood third pair took pity on Peter, deciding against making him run around any more, and conceded. (he was looking quite red – Ed)

Led by Boycie, the tight knit ‘platoon’ that is Croxley Mixed A all joined together to point out (quite vociferously) that neither Peter or Laura should be credited with that Victory when it came to ‘team stats’ … camaraderie is clearly nowhere near dead!

Tea Score 9 (and commended) … Boycie deducted 1 point for ‘no chocolate cake’

CHH

for those of you wanting to know the answers to all the important questions above, they are … who cares, clockwise, approximately 5 washes (but no fabric softener to be added), email her and she’ll send the recipe (and yes), who knows and yes (Tuesdays, BBC2, 9pm

We knew it would be tough but I felt we acquitted ourselves pretty well against a very strong side.  

Certainly I was happy with the way in which Liz Burch and I played in order to win a couple of games against the number one pair and 3 games against the number two pair. In the 3rd round Liz and I had a titanic struggle before eventually winning a tie break by 14 points to 12 in order to salvage a little bit of pride.

Pauline and Colin played well to win 10 games on the night – even though Pauline had the opposite of a purple patch at one stage (according to Colin) when she was serving at 40 love and then went on to drop her serve.

Liz Beak and Boycie, after a slow start, picked up 7 games & took the 3rd pair to 5-7.

A very pleasant evening’s tennis though.  

Tea - Not a good one (according to the OA team and the healthy eaters. There was (sic) samosas, mini spring rolls, some battered vegetable things, and some fried chicken strips – basically lots of calories and fat to accompany the bowl of salad.

Personally, I thought the samosas were very nice.  

From memory, I think dessert was some kind of lemon tart thingy. I think my team would be disappointed if I awarded more than a 3.5/10.

Having been made to do all the washing up and drying up along with Ian Wilkie the previous Monday (penalty for our appalling performance in a Mens match) nothing gave me more pleasure than banishing Colin Hewett to the kitchen along with Liz Burch as punishment for their dropped set. Being the gent that he is, Colin seemed to let Liz off the hook.  

Anyway, back to the match. A decent enough win in my opinion. I know that Laura and I played very well to beat their No 1 pair in a set that seemed to excite the watching crowd. In the final round a swift win for Laura and myself coupled with the Colin/Liz defeat meant that we could watch the legend that is Boycie on Court 4.

At least we all know where the holes in the nets are coming from and who is responsible as Boycie used his various weapons to smack the ball into it from varying positions. Fortunately, Liz and Richard had made a good start and despite the 12 consecutive missed volleys, forehands and backhands they managed to re-group and they came off court harmonious.  

A convincing win this with all 3 pairs playing well. I think perhaps Chorleywood can feel a little aggrieved at the actual set scores but I guess this is a measure of how well we all played.  Although Laura and I only dropped 3 games all night we unfortunately were unable to avoid getting a last minute drenching as it took us absolutely ages to progress from 4-0 to 6-0 in our final set with Percy and Susie being party poopers.  A bedraggled set of players sat down to an absolutely marvellous spread courtesy of non playing captain Robert McKenary.

Tea Score:  It’s not often that we go overboard with our ratings but this was a genuine 10 out of 10. Lots of everything including about 4 pizzas, loads of hot sausage rolls, French stick, little celery things with cheese/carrot fillings, 3 types of cheese, tomatoes off the vine, a wonderful salad which even I liked, kettle style crisps plus other stuff I have probably forgotten. For afters we had homemade strawberry flans (3 of them!) all served up by Robert who was dressed and behaving like a waiter in the Ritz.  

The unavailability of Laura and a late bad back on my part meant a last minute call up for Colin Midson who joined the A team along with Anna. Was this a clever ruse on the part of Laura and myself to protect our stats as a strong looking OA proceeded to cruise to victory? The final result of 4-5 perhaps makes things seem closer than they were but we were 2-4 down after the 2nd round and the writing was on the wall.  

Its not often that we praise opposition players but Margie on Court 4 was a joy to watch (and I’m talking her tennis not her outfit).  After a disastrous 1st set (they lost 0-6) Colin H and Anna bounced back to win their next 2. Our other 2 pairs had to be content with just picking up the 1 set.

Tea Score:
Obviously a poor effort on my part (see Jon’s comments on the Mixed B match report played on the same night) but perhaps this contributed towards a few other people volunteering to take their turn in the future. Having been the captain of both Mixed Teams for the past 5 years or more it does get wearing constantly having to do everything and hearing others tell me that they cannot contribute because they work etc etc. Still, moaning apart, the tea was pretty awful as a consequence of a 5 minute dash around Tescos so it’s about a 3 out of 10.   Nice Battenburg though!