…CURTC for the 15th battle of the North Sea** and win quite reasonably convincingly! Full results are here.
As is customary in this annual contest we had a number of 8-7 finishes (including a 40-all). But this time there were all on the same court so the schedule ended up completely shredded.
Andreas van Braam Houckgeest and Andrew Petrie started the trend but the number 1 Singles pairing of Charlie D’Oyly and Saskia Bollerman who were handily team colour coordinated ensured the schedule was pretty much doomed by playing a full quota of points and games. but it was a pity about Charlie’s shoes…
Andy Smith and Oskar Knötschke made sure there was no way back by refusing to buck the 8/7 trend. So by the time these were over the DRTA were 4-3 to the good and the Blue Court was a clear 1 and half matches ahead of the Blue Court. Some canny play by the middle order kept CURTC in touch and a tie was at least in the offing when the final match started… But it was not to be and the DRTA emerged victorious 8-6.
Then the serious business of taking the team photos could start along with lunch. Given Pinot (the dog not the wine) was involved in the former as well as the latter, this soon got complicated and of the various attempts to get everyone facing more or less in the same direction, this was one of the less successful.
but was followed by a display of appropriately themed wristbands.

Orange vs the Light Blues

*Dutch Real Tennis Association (NRTB)

**We’ve long wanted to get a trophy for this annual contest which prompted a ‘when did the first match actually take place’ discussion. It looks like the first January encounter was back in 2007 but of course those results seem to have disappeared into the ether. Some if not all results from 2008 onwards can be found here. The current tally is CURTC 4, Dutch 3, Tie 2, CURTC (possibly) 3, Unknown 3