It was an incredibly windy night at Rothamsted – especially on Court 3 (the windiest court, according to home players) where the Worby’s spent an unhappy evening. We enjoyed picking up the fallen debris from the overhanging trees though and we were consistent – 3-6, 3-6, 3-6. I couldn’t see much in the gloom of the 3^rd set and perhaps Pauline couldn’t see much in the first two?  

Our ace pairing of Laura and Colin H did exceptionally well and won all their sets at a canter, losing just 3 games. Well done to them.  

The Midson/Beak pairing battled away to win their 1^st set after a tie break and they won their 2^nd set 6-2. It got too dark for them to finish their 3^rd set and with the match won by Croxley they decided to call it a day.  

A very pleasant pint of beer (priced at just £1.70) after the match and we then dashed off having earlier explained to Rothamsted that we weren’t stating for supper.  

Thanks to the opposition captain Graham for agreeing to re-schedule this match which was much appreciated.  

And so, the battle for the wooden spoon ended with Rothamsted bottom of the league and Croxley bottom but one. We will resume rivalries next season.  

Big thanks to all those who have played in the Mixed A’s this season and particular big thanks to those who took their turn catering (Boycie, Laura, Kate, Colin M & Pauline).  

Like lambs to the slaughter (as expressed by Maureen) we made our way to St Albans and the home of OA Tennis for this Mixed match. Boycie and I played a few weeks back at Barnet where we “enjoyed” a good sound beating against what we thought was the best mixed team we have met. Well, I think I can safely say that this OA team is the best Mixed opposition I have come up against in about 8 years or so of competitive mixed tennis.

The 1st round was ominous with Mo & Richard losing 6-0 in double swift time (“not even a deuce” moaned Maureen) followed by Colin & Gemma also shaking hands on a 0-6 scoreline. The solitary game salvaged by myself and Pauline meant that after Round 1 we had 1 game between us in the bag! With the writing on the wall, Colin proposed that we set ourselves a target of 12 games (which he revised to 16 for the evening) – could we manage that?

The 2nd round didn’t see anything get better for the Boycie & Mo combo – another 0-6 scoreline. Colin & Gemma played a quick set but managed to get to 4-4 before going down 4-6. Again, Pauline and I were on court the longest but our efforts were in vain – a 2-6 defeat – mind you, those 2 games were the only games conceded by Jonny & Nicky all evening. If Pauline could have got even just one of Jonny’s serves back then that would have been a bonus!! So……….that was 7 games from 6 sets.

Could we improve in the 3rd round – the answer was no so far as Gemma & Colin were concerned – another 0-6 for them. At last Boycie and Mo were off the mark with 2 (yes TWO) games against the Drexlers. That just left the Worby’s to have a crack at the legendary Margie & Matt who we reminded before the set started had yet to drop a game. When I held serve to go 1-1 their dream of a perfect evening was in tatters – despite many cracking points and a number of game points we couldn’t add to this so a 6-1 defeat it was.

Total games won by Croxley therefore 10 (not bad from 9 sets I hear you all say). I can’t speak for our other pairs but I know that Pauline and I played pretty well on a difficult surface for us hard court specialists so all I can do is be gracious and say that the better team (just) won.

Tea - An odd one this – pork from a hog roast with salad. Richard declared (in a whisper) that if there wasn’t any bread or potatoes or something then that would be out of order. Well, out of order it was then! After was good with a big chocolate cake that was actually hot – so a bit like chocolate fudge brownie I suppose. The fact that OA’s bought us all a beer means that it would be churlish of me to give them anything less than a 7/10. Without a beer it would have been a 5 though!  

Our 2nd win of the season was achieved in some style with Gemma Midson making her first appearance for the Mixed Team and Kerry Stewart her second. We got off to a sound start in the 1st round with Kerry and I playing a good set to beat the mother and son pairing 6-1 and both the other sets going to tie breaks; whilst Laura and Richard lost theirs against the number one pair fortunately Colin and Gemma won theirs against the number threes. So that was 2-1 to us. We doubled our lead in the 2nd round to go 4-2 up with easy wins for Colin & Gemma (6-0) and Laura & Richard (6-0). The only blot was Kerry and myself losing to the 1st pair although the 1-6 scoreline was a bit harsh on us.

The 3rd round saw all 3 Croxley pairs win to make the final score 7-2, so job done.  

It’s certainly worth recording that Julie Power who played 2nd pair for Barnet is the brother of Billy Byrne who used to play up front for Wealdstone FC in the 70’s forming a lethal partnership with George Duck – my brother used to play for Wealdstone she said to me – do you remember him? Remember him, he was a childhood hero for Messrs Taffel and Worby.

Tea: Once a season Boycie volunteers to cater and a right old treat it is for us as Sharon clicks into gear. Trouble was that Richard had also volunteered to cater for the Mens A on Monday so that was twice in 4 days for Sharon. A cracking effort though from the Rigsby lookalike and his wife as we sat down to papadoms and various pickles followed by chicken curry, vegetable curry, rice, nan bread and then chocolate cake dessert. Lucky old Barnet to be the visitors for this one which has got to be a 10/10 on the richter scale.

A very pleasant evening for everyone, including Doug, Paul and Pauline who participated in the food. Nice to have a few other club members down to watch too. The only downside was the return of the Mixed B’s from St Albans who lost 0-9 and were none too happy.

We thought that well known Chinese lady player Miss Sing would be at Croxley tonight – we were right. Rothamsted had rung me earlier in the day to say that they were just sending 2 pairs. It had been my intention to have a Croxley pair guest for Rothamsted in order to avoid the hanging around that a match of this type results in but whilst enlisting Colin Williams my attempts to find a female partner for him fell on stoney ground! As I made my way to the Club at 6.10 I spoke to Pauline and learnt that she had forgotten to go shopping for our supper – I made an executive decision and decided to stand down and go shopping myself and to allow Colin Williams to play instead.

Boycie, as he will proudly tell you, captained the team initially and allowed the all coach pairing of Colin and Liz to play No. 1 pair. Did the coached pair succeed – answer No – unfortunately 2 narrow tie break defeats.

Mr Wilkie, lured from Aldenham with the promise that he would play with Laura and finally win his first mixed set of the season did just that – they beat the 2nd pair 6-2. Unfortunately, the rails fell off the juggernaut in their 2nd set and the shock of Ian serving 3 double faults in a row was enough to inspire their opponents to come from 2-5 down to a 7-5 win.

Boycie, despite the stress of having to get balls out and control certain of his team members managed to have a gloriously successful evening with Kate and they won both their sets.

So, there you are. 3-3 on the night but with 3 walkover sets that means a historic 6-3 win – the 1st win of the season for the Mixed A team. Hey, all we have to do is win our last 3 matches and we might stay up. Is that a pig flying past I’ve just spotted?

Tea - of course, this was very nice. I managed to overspend from my own pocket; despite this a certain individual still commented that I was taking the left over cheese and coleslaw home! I thought it was a decent ploughman type supper with French stick, brown loaves, cheese, pate, salami, chourizo, boiled eggs, coleslaw, onion, tomatoes, cucumber and pickles followed by (to Boycie’s pleasure) toffee pavlova (x2) and cheesecake.

I seriously reckon 8.5 or 9/10.

Pete Worby

Match Report

The brave whipping boys of Division 3 made the long haul over to Barnet arriving at 6.45 despite having set off just after 5.50pm. Any fears that our late arrival might have resulted in the jacket potatoes being overcooked were quickly dispelled as all 3 pairs lost 2-6 in the opening round in about 25 minutes.

The 2nd round was even quicker with Liz & yours truly going down 0-6 and Kate/Boycie suffering a similar fate. The big shock though was a superb 6-1 win by Laura & Laurence against the 2nd pair. Well done to them.

The 3rd round saw the only close set of the evening with Richard and Kate clawing their way to a 5-7 defeat against the 2rd pair.

To say we were outclassed would be an understatement – as you can see from the scorecard the Barnet 1st pair only dropped 2 games all evening and their 3nd pair dropped 4 games. Very strong opponents indeed.

Paddy Power now offering 40 – 1 should anyone want to place a bet on the Mixed A team staying up.

Tea : Jacket spuds with grated cheese and baked beans/coleslaw filled a hole followed by some little muffins and
fudge/chocolate type things. Probably a 5.5/10 or thereabouts. Nice strong cup of tea though so I’ll round the tea score up to a 6.

Match Report 

With Colin Hewett on holiday and Anna not available I decided to give Kerry Stewart her match debut and Laurence played up from the B’s.  

It has to be said that Laurence and Laura had a splendid night – great tennis from them and all 3 sets won with just a couple of games being dropped. Brilliant.

If truth be told, Chorleywood did not field as strong a side as they did in the home match and so we had a real chance of a win. Both Boycie and myself felt we should have done better but you can only beat yourself up so much!

After 2 rounds it was a 3-3 set score. That meant that we had to win 2 more sets in the last round. Laurence & Laura did the business on Percy & Sarah but Kerry (who by now was gaining in confidence) and I went down 4-6 to the 1st pair and sadly Richard & Kate went down 2-6 to the 2nd pair. That meant a 4-5 defeat for the 4th time this season. Close, but no cigar.

Match Report

Another tough game which resulted in a heavy loss with just myself and Liz Beak managing to win a set. Our win in the 1^st Round was a decent win against a good pair – we were very happy with the 6-2 scoreline. Whilst this was going on Kate and Richard were getting trounced 1-6 by the 3^rd pair and Colin/Laura were going down to the famous Margi and her partner Mat.

The 2^nd round saw us all lose. Liz and I played good tennis against the Matt/Margi combo with lots of deuces and game points and interesting Beakie volleys – she certainly used all parts of her frame and racket as the ball was fired at her. Kate and Richard lost 5-7 after I believe being ahead at one stage and Laura and Colin lost in a tie break. That meant we were 1-5 down and match lost after 2 rounds. Laura decided to sit out the 2^nd round as she had tweaked her knee and the match was lost – Colin I think just fancied a cup of tea.

Kate and Richard went down 0-6 to the 1^st pair and Liz and I lost to the 3rds who crowded the net and enjoyed volleying at me.

The moral from this match, in all honesty, is that all 6 OA team members were competent volleyers who weren’t afraid of the net. The Croxley formation of one up and one back is not really the way to win matches against good teams.

So…………that’s 0 from 6 now. Onward and upwards eh!

Tea

Thanks to Kate and Liz Burch for doing the joint Mixed A & B catering. Hot rice with Chilli and other bits and bobs (coleslaw, cheese, salad, etc) followed by various cakes.

It was all very pleasant. Must be another high score – say 8.5/10

The lofty heights of Division 3 appear to be slightly beyond us as we have now played 5 and lost 5. But, having said that, 3 of our defeats have been 4-5 and this was the second time we have lost to Townsend by that scoreline!  

Richard & Kate did well to win their 1st match against the 2nd pair by 6-4 but their evening got tougher after that and they lost to 2 and 3 in their next sets. Conversely, Anna and my evening got better as it went on; we went down initially 2-6 to the 1st pair in a set far closer than the scoreline suggests. We had game points in 5 of the 6 games that we lost but against good opposition who raise their game on the big points we just missed out – close but no cigar. In our 2nd set we really should have got to a tie-break but having pulled back to 5-5 we missed out and went down 5-7. Finally, we played well to win our last set 6-4.

Laura and Colin, playing together for the first time did well to win 2 sets but unfortunately that was not enough as the match score finished with a close defeat for Croxley.

Tea  

Much was expected in terms of culinary fare from Daniel but he lost points with the long wait for food. On the plus side, alcoholic drinks whilst we waited for supper – the boys in our team particularly enjoying their decent handpump ale. That has to be a plus 2. After about half an hour (with reports coming through of a pizza crisis in the kitchen and oven problems) a couple of bowls of salad appeared. I enjoyed the piece of feta cheese that I located. Boycie’s face at this stage a picture. I think that has to be a minus 3 for salad on its own. Trying to be gracious though, we should award a plus 1 for the home made dressing. 10 minutes later some garlic bread appeared. That was very tasty so probably worth a point on its own…………..and eventually the much talked about pizzas arrived. I think they were handmade by Daniel with him constructing the toppings on bought bases. Definitely, a cut above the normal Iceland/Tesco pizza that we often see. Lots of plus points here for the tea score albeit a couple knocked off to allow for the fact that by now it was about 10.30pm. I’ll even give a plus one for the hot red chilli added to one of the pizzas.

Just when we were about to get up and leave a fruit salad arrived which according to those who like that sort of thing (not Boycie) was quite exotic and very nice. All in all, including an extra point for effort, I think it’s got to be 8/10.

If ever we have managed to clutch defeat from the jaws of victory then this was the match. After 2 rounds the match was poised at 3 sets each. Boycie and Laura then came off court having beaten the number 1 Riverside pair 6-0. That put us 4-3 up on sets.

Liz and Laurence were on court going quite nicely I thought against the number 3 pair but after more than a hint of mother/son strife they eventually came off court with a 5-7 defeat making it 4 sets each.

Meantime, Ian and Pauline who previously had not been firing on many cylinders at all had hit form and had moved into a 5-4 lead with Ian to serve. 2 booming forehands later from Ian and it was 30-love. 3 points later it was 40-30 with a set/match point. Not taken though and eventually Ian dropped his serve. Our pair then won the next game which meant that it was Pauline’s serve at 6-5. Could she serve out? The answer was no – despite getting to 30 all eventually she was broken. It was then tie break time. About 20 minutes later, after a pulled Wilkie groin and about 10 set/match points to Croxley our gallant duo eventually lost 19 – 17.

So, another close defeat. The 2 A team regulars of Laura and Boycie played well to win all 3 sets – a slightly disappointing evening for the rest of the team who gallantly stepped in to replace the injured calf Worby, tweaked hamstring Hewett, at work Barone and in Oz Bray.

Just remembered that I texted Boycie during the afternoon letting him know that I had a treat for him tonight. “What’s that?” he texted back – “chocolate covered beef?” The answer of course was that he was playing with Laura for the 1st time – not like Boycie to guess wrong……..  

Tea  

2 huge Shepherd Pie’s (Pete's grammar - Ed) courtesy of the Worby’s for the 2 mixed teams that were both at home could have gone horribly wrong with the Mixed A match over running by about half an hour – luckily they weren’t burnt. Salad (boo hiss) to accompany and various cakes etc to follow.

Perhaps someone else would like to score but I would say it was a 9.5/10 (but then I would wouldn’t I?).  

Not a good night this for the Wobmeister. Having only lost 3 sets throughout the season with Laura last year I proceeded to lose all 3 tonight. I thought our opponents played well – at least they did when they were up against me. Colin and Anna did better managing to win a set against the 3^rd pair and similarly Liz and Richard won a set in the middle round against the 1^st pair.

Richard will like to be reminded that he was serving at 30-30 and 5-1 up against the 3^rd pair before eventually losing 5-7. I doubt whether this will be mentioned again though. He did take a tumble for the cause though on the sandy wastes of Chorleywood.

I managed to get a glimpse of the other match going on which was Chorleywood’s A team v David Lloyd in a Division 1 match. Scary stuff by Croxley standards!!

Tea Score

A decent effort this. Once again jacket potatoes with cheese, tuna and baked beans and some salad followed by some grapes and flapjack biscuits. Worthy of a 7.5/10 in my book.  

An enjoyable evening even if not an enjoyable result.  

This was one that we really should have won. The 1st round saw us go 2-1 up on sets after Richard/Liz beat the 3rds and Laura/Wobs beat the 2nds. The only blip was Colin/Anna but they were playing the 1st pair so……………….  

The 2nd round saw Laura and I beating the 1st pair which was a decent result. The surprise however was Colin and Anna losing to the 3rds. With Liz and Richard losing too that meant it was 3-3 on sets.  

The 3rd round saw Colin and Anna win their first set as they finally clicked, so well done to them. Liz and Richard went down to the 1st pair so that left myself and Laura trying to grind out a result against spinny and lobby. Sadly we couldn’t so that was a 4-5 defeat. I think all team members felt they should have done better – we just needed that 1 extra set, but it wasn’t to be.

Tea

A fantastic effort here from Colin & Glenda which I think deserves a score of 9/10. With both the Mixed A and Mixed B team at home they catered for 24. Jacket potatoes with chilli, cheese, tuna, baked beans plus coleslaw and other stuff. The only blot on the landscape according to Boycie was the presence of green salad stuff.  

Disaster afterwards though. With Liz, Anna and Colin all unable to stay for supper and with Laura going off to vote this just left Richard and myself to stay behind to deal with the mountain of washing up, drying up, table tidying, chair putting away, hovering etc. It must have been nearly 11pm before we left. Luckily, some of the B team stayed to help – good guys that they are.

Our 1st match in the heady heights of Division 3 saw us off to a disappointing start. In the first round just Boycie and Kate, playing 3rd pair managed a win against the Riverside 3rd pair. Despite breaking strings in the 1st game and my racket frame in the 3rd game Laura and I were still unable to better the 2nd pair with opposition Tania playing especially well. Her serve was better than most male servers down at Croxley!  

The 2nd round didn’t get much better for us though Laura and I were pleased with our 6 –0 win.  

The shock of the 3rd round was that Ian and Anna lost their set against the 3rds to go 0 from 3. I think its fair to say though that the Riverside 3rd pair picked their game up following their earlier defeats.  

Tea Score:  

A very nice chilli served on a jacket potato with a bit of salad but that was about it. No tea or coffee and no desert. In fact, that reminds me, the bar staff got quite shirty when I had the temerity to ask for an orange squash to take on court with me and Ian got told off for wanting water!  

I think its got to be a 5/10.