On Saturday I returned from my holiday back home in the sunny land of Oz and swapped mornings swimming at the beach for a dark wintery morning trip to the historic Hatfield House. We were welcomed heartily at the door by our wonderful host Martin. After a brief discussion about what to source from the wine cellar (a regular Hatfield tactic for later matches) he took to the court against Cambridge’s phenomenon Kate. Despite some excellent rallies, Kate breezed ahead and won 6-2 6-3.

The Kees Bus arrived during the game and brought Vix, who then faced off against Joe. He had clearly ignored good festive season advice to eat mince pies and instead played squash. This showed in the hard fought match with Vix, where he scrapped though 6-2, 6-0. A junior friendly exhibition doubles then took place between Kees, Bella, Vix and James while the rest of us tucked into a delightful lunch prepared by Martin which included CHOCOLATE CAKE!! Annie deftly avoided the wine at lunch and played an epic against Richard, coming back in the second set from 5-1 down to take the set and the match 6-5, 6-5.

With the jet lag starting to set in, I finally made it onto the court against the tricky serves of Peter. Despite a comeback in the second set, the late hour and the chocolate cake saw Peter triumph in the third set 6-3, 2-6, 6-4. We would like to thank Hatfield for hosting us especially Martin, James and Jon.

Annie staging an epic comeback against Richard

Amanda