…Probably best not to arrange a 10am starting time for an away Club match, especially if you are playing in the first rubber, the day the clocks go forward…

Having got up at a ridiculously early time even without the extra hour factored in, thanks to #TeamKirk, we made it to Leamington allowing plenty of time for most of the team to investigate the beer festival going on over the road (“Roaring trade & lots of families” was the verdict).

Tennis got off to a slow start CURTC wise as I lost the 1st set to Leamington MM James Levy but we then went on a roll and reeled off 8 successive sets. I would like to say I wore my opponent down but it became increasingly clear as the match progressed that James was more concerned about the non-appearance of a) Ben, the Pro (feeling a bit ‘poorly’) and b) Lunch. Suffice it to say that Julie (Levy) stepped into the breach lunchwise and that we all wish Ben the best for a speedy recovery.

The next match was all CURTC in the form of the tweeter Kirk (Kate) until Kate had won the first 10 games. Kate then added an eleventh with an outrageous shot off the edge of the Penthouse and the Dedans wall to win a 2&3 chase with her opponent threatening. However, aforementioned opponent then produced an almost identical but even more outrageous shot for a Dedans ‘force’ via the same bit of Penthouse to finally take a game. Great stuff with much fist pumping amidst huge roars from the assembled spectators!

Prof was up next and having comprehensively lost the warm-up and the first two games suddenly started smashing and placing the ball over the place especially the place his opponent was not standing at the time. Several rallies literally used the entire court as backpedaling of a level not seen since the budget was in evidence on both sides of the net. I was marking this rubber using Frostie’s RT marker Pro while James worked on a) lunch, b) Ben and c) wine for the marker. There were a few hiccups and and acknowledgement of consistency for my efforts with the comment “I thought you called all the chases 1/2 a yard long”.

Bailey showing an urgency I’ve only seen before in proximity to a beer festival (oh…, wait a minute) kept the ball rolling literally and figuratively in CURTC’s favour. By this time the mysteries of the Leamington oven had been solved by Julie & Kate’s combined mastery and some ‘bon odeurs’ interfered with the concentration of those in the Dedans.

Felicity Sargeant (aka Fliss) finally got a set for our hosts with an astonishingly consistent attack on the server’s back hand corner. But Howard hung in there and started mixing things up a bit and gradually edged ahead but not without some of the best tennis played on the day. (Fliss is a student at Manchester and I strongly urged her to consider some post graduate study here in Cambridge).

Many thanks to our Leamington hosts, especially James & Julie, for a most enjoyable day of tennis and an excellent lunch. We look forward to seeing you back here in Cambridge and promise we will start at 11am in next year’s fixture.