Olivia Chesser and Matt Shaw, this year’s Varsity Captains, set the tone for last night’s Challenge right from the first reste of a dozen or so (I lost count) hard hit shots. I almost felt sorry for Matt as he withstood a series of hard struck volleys from the Hazard end. Olivia rushed (there was nothing slow paced about the game) to a 4-1 lead mostly from that Hazard end, defying the conventional wisdom that in these sort of matches you really want to serve. Olivia finally did get the serve and incredibly Matt began to creep back. He was banned chases worse than 3 (which had to be explained to someone in the Dedans who really should have known to which of the two players this applied…). I couldn’t understand why Olivia wasn’t leaving anything but when she finally did, it fell better than 3 such was Matt’s accuracy. Grilles were traded but Matt clawed back to 4-all and inched ahead 6-5. But Olivia was totally unperturbed by a few unreturnable shots and serves and kept volleying anything she could. A few mistakes crept into Matt’s game as he hit the Tambour (and Hazard 2nd) at crucial points and just lost a short chase. The last reste was just like the first only with Olivia serving. Both players made some astonishing retrieves before Matt hit one that could be safely left….

Congratulations to both players and Olivia on her 8-6 victory. The Varsity Ladies now lead the Captains’ Challenge 2-1.

Olivia Chesser & Matt Shaw, CURTC Captains’ Challenge, 2018 (click on image for larger…)