With Grosvenor already relegated, the other relegation spot was almost certainly going to be either us or Cassiobury. Once again, a strong team (by our standards) just wasn’t good enough on the night and I was disappointed to hear of the 9-0 defeat. Jerry and Glenda came closest to winning a set as one of theirs went to a tie-break.

The previously successful pairing of Mo and Laurence didn’t achieve what I know they are capable of and despite Warren coming in to bolster the team this wasn’t enough to save the day.

So, relegation is now a certainty (unless we stay up by default). Having played 12 matches the Mixed B team won just 3 (both matches against Grosvenor and the home match v Cassiobury). The team won 40 sets and lost 68.

I will probably circulate the seasons stats within the team but sadly they do not make pretty reading. The male stars would be Colin Midson who won 13 out of 21 sets played and young Laurence Burch who won 10 out of 21 sets played. From a female perspective, only Glenda with 10 sets from 18 played was in positive figures (unless I count Angie and Rose who both won 2 from 3).

Here’s to next season.

Pete Worby

Not for the first time this season, a pretty strong Croxley team was pretty much thumped by their opponents in a Mixed Div 5 match.

The only set that we really won was the final set of the night when Laurence and Glenda eventually triumphed 7-6 in a tie break. Rain breaks earlier meant that the match was heavily delayed which caused serious problems on the baked potato front; so much so that tea was started without Laurence & Glenda as everyone else got (a) fed up waiting for them and (b) too cold being outside watching them.  

Jon & Liz were given a walkover set in the final round as with the match score at 0-6 young Tom announced that he had a dodgy knee and as he was wearing the wrong shoes for our courts he kept slipping on the wet surface. Before that they had lost 3-6 and 2-6 in matches either delayed by late arrival or by rain spells. It was a bit stop start for them.

Sadly, the old combination of David and Mo couldn’t rediscover their former glories and they didn’t manage to either win a set or be given one on a walkover. Mo was quite noisy though (as always!).

Tea was well done jacket potatoes with various fillings and very nice too I thought. About a 7/10.

Well……….I thought I had put out a pretty strong team. Sadly, it was not good enough on the night to overcome what was obviously a very decent 3 pairs from Leverstock. The only bright spot was a tie break win for Karen and Jon in their last set against the opposition No 1 pair.

The other 8 sets saw our pairs of Karen/Jon, Mike Coster/Helen and Colin Williams/Maureen win just 10 games between them.  

This match perhaps shows the difficulties that I as captain am faced with. There are quite a lot of club members at Croxley who would like to play in the Mixed Team and are disappointed that they are not selected; however, with consistently good opposition (even in Division 5) it is difficult to give everyone what they want. There is no point putting a team out just to get hammered as no one wants that – hence I try to select a team that is as competitive as it can be.  

JT was obviously so shell shocked that he left our match card behind at Leverstock!

Pete Worby

This was pretty much a must win match if our Mixed B team were to have any chance of avoiding relegation and I’m pleased to record that indeed we did win……just.  

David Redman, when the pairings and order of play was announced came up with the fabulous comment “Not only is it the B team but I’m 3rd pair, how the mighty have fallen”. I’m pleased to say though that David and Helen did their job – they beat the 3rd pair by 6-4.

Similarly, Colin & Glenda also did their job – they beat the 2nd pair 7-6 in a tie break and they beat the 3rd pair as well.

Whilst Colin Williams and Mo failed to beat their counterparts they too managed to win a couple of sets so that meant a 5-4 win to us.

Maureen was kind enough to cater (for the 2nd time this season I am sure she would want me to point out) but I have no idea whether her tea was good, bad or indifferent.

One point of interest – a certain Tracey Bunyard was playing for Cassiobury!

Pete Worby

This match saw Norman & Jackie making their mixed team debut – a tough baptism of fire. Although they lost 2 of their sets badly they did get very close in their last set – just losing 5-7.  

I can’t say very much about Pauline and Colin other than that I know Pauline was far from happy with the set claiming business and whilst Liz & Laurence were competitive in 2 of their sets sadly they too were whitewashed.

A disappointing evening.

The ploy of pairing our two coaches failed to pay off even though Liz and Colin started with a 6-2 win. Sadly, their night went downhill after that but they pushed the 2nd pair close before losing a tie break.  

Pauline and Mat failed to trouble the scorebook – both admitted after the match when I saw them that they really hadn’t been firing on all cylinders. I think their exact words were “we played like a pair of prats”.  

The stars of the show were Colin Midson and Rose  who won 2 of their sets.

This all added up to a 3-6 defeat. 

Thanks to Pauline for providing tea which I believe was the fairly bog standard tennis supper – that sounds like a 6/10 to me.

Pete Worby

In hindsight perhaps it would have been good for our skipper to have forewarned the opposition that in the wake of the tube strike and roadworks on the A1 that there might be a problem with the Croxley team arriving on time for this one.  Luckily I was on time and in regular communication with half our team who were enjoying a pleasant evening stuck on the Hempstead Road.  Shirley and Gary also arrived in time, but it became clear that despite my protestations the home skipper seemed intent on imposing the 6.50 deadline for starting, although blaming it on other members of the team who wanted to impose it.  Rules are rules, but there was no danger of the game not finishing with the weather fine and the daylight long, it was hardly the beginning of May. With the remainder of the Croxley team pulling into the carpark at 655, they finally agreed to play, but only if I agreed to concede the 3rd sets in the event of the match not finishing.  I could see their point, but it all seemed very petty on a fine evening, and set an unsavoury tone.  Thankfully, most of the home team were decent enough and the evening was on the whole enjoyable.

So, round 1, and Karen Doug and Mo started with no warm up to speak of, and all fell to defeats with myself against a couple of strong pairings.  Gary and Shirley, who were ready in time, completed our first set victory of the evening, which just happened to be the last set to finish (well simultaneously with Doug and Mo), so perhaps the 3rd set provisional concession was now a complete irrelevance, although I chose not to pursue this.  

Round 2, and joy of joys I was up against probably the most charmless person I have ever had the pleasure of playing against, together with her partner who I felt most sorry for (I shall call her 'C' to protect her anonymity).  I spun, he called wrong, I chose to serve.  Not good enough for 'C' who declared that the home team should spin.  I queried this, and was told about the unwritten rule governing this. Aha, not one that I know I retorted, so I refused her kind offer of a re-spin.  As the game progressed it became clear she was none to keem on applying the written rule either when it comes to line calls.  Oh well!  Happily she was sent packing with a defeat, not before berating her poor partner on several occasions.  Sadly Doug and Mo were swept away by their 1's, however Gary and Shirley pulled off the win of the night against the 2's, clinching a tie break win to keep us in with a chance going into the final round.

Round 3, and sadly it was not to be.  With Doug and Mo condemning 'C' to her 3rd deserved defeat, it was really down to myself and Karen to emulate the Broadbridges efforts against the 2's.  Sadly it was not to be, the opposition played some exceptional tennis and whatever we did wasn't enough and we were blown away.  With Gary and Shirley also losing to the 1's, it was another 4-5 defeat for Croxley, but the night belonged to the charmless one.

Lasagne afterwards was top notch.

Perhaps one of the team members will write something.  

All I know is that all team members seemed to be a bit glum when I caught up with them. Colin and Karen seemed to think that they could have won all 3. Mark lost all 3 playing with Mo but they nearly pulled it off in the final round when with the match poised at 4-4 they narrowly lost a tie break to the No.1 pair. Mark mentioned that he had been serving at 5-3 up but I won’t mention this here.

Tea Score:  The tea kindly provided by Maureen so a thank you to her. I have no idea whether it was good, bad or indifferent.

Pete W

I was told that this was a very pleasant evening and most of the team enjoyed playing on grass. Laurence and Mo continued their habit of winning 2 sets.  Jerry had a toilet incident but I don’t think he troubled the Stationmaster of Croxley Met (where apparently it was suggested he go).  As it was early in the season I think the team even managed to avoid the normal mosquito bites.

Tea Score:  Not sure about this one but it’s usually decent fare at Grosvenor so I’ll go for a 7 out of 10.

I had the call to play around lunchtime, so my usual meticulous pre-match preparations - physically, mentally and dietary - were all out of the window.  Phychologically I was already in tatters after playing for the Mens A on Monday and contributing zero in a 4-5 defeat.  

Nonetheless I was in a positive frame of mind for my first ever competitive match partnering Mrs Beak, with no reason to suspect that I was about to embark upon the worst couple of hours tennis I can recall for some time.  Neither of us were at the races and it was another nil score for me, two in a week is not good.  Gary and Shirley similarly failed to trouble the scorers, although they at least played some competitive stuff along the way.  All of which was not such good news for the team. and particularly Laurence and Mo who continued their good form of late by picking up our sole 2 sets of the night, so very well done them. 

As for tea, the amount that our visitors actually consumed spoke volumes for the lack of imagination that went into this uninspiring effort.  Oh it's easy to criticise......

Jon T

Match Report 2 !!  

I was lucky (or should I say unlucky) enough to be able to watch this one. It seemed to be a bad night for the Taffel/Beak partnership with neither inspiring the other to raise their game – see Jon’s own comments elsewhere. Similarly, Gary and Shirley after losing a close 1st set had a tough evening; ever the gentleman Gary seemed to accept responsibility.

Having said that, this was a Bovingdon team that had dropped down a division and the 2 Chan brothers have improved since last season.  The stars of the show were undoubtedly Laurence and Mo who won 2 sets so well done to them.

Tea Score: As previously mentioned, it was rubbish. My only excuse is that I left work at 5.50 and literally had 10 minutes to dash around Tescos and buy enough stuff to feed 24 people (2 teams at home). Still……..I did set all the tables and chairs up and laid a lot of it out.