The Dedanists are a peripatetic (i.e. don’t have a Home Court) Club who run a successful foundation to support junior and emerging tennis. This is great for the game in general even if a bit late for yours truly whose tennis I’m forced to admit has fully emerged. Things started brightly for the Dedanists on Saturday. For a start everyone (all 10) showed up on time even if there was a bit of grumbling at the complexity of the arrangements (It was really quite simple, find letter corresponding to you first match in the Table on the top left and then the time and Court in the Table to the right. Repeat in reverse to find you partner and opponents. Repeat in the Match 2 column to find your second match… Simple, right!).
Through a masterstroke of programming the pairs in each of the 10 matches were within 2 handicap points of level, so off level we played (with full deuces). On Court the brightness continued for the Dedanists continued as we/they romped to victory in the 1st two matches. Well, romped is perhaps a bit misleading as on the Blue Court, myself and Simon Mansfield produces an almost Lazarus worthy comeback from 4-2 down to win 8-7. On the other Court, Josh Farrall and Chris Stanton took an entirely different approach. They got their noses in front before starting a seemingly endless series of deuces. The marker finally took pity on the players (and the spectators) by calling the game 6-3 to the Dedanists after the 50 minutes allocated time… We had long finished our 15 games by this point.
However at this point things clouded over Dedenistwise. There were some notable attempts at fightbacks without unfortunately actually winning and spirited attempts to get on with winning or losing (actually losing) as quickly as possible to get the schedule back on track. And so alas the Dedanists early lead evaporated as the match finished 8-2 in favour of the Hosts.
However the main business of the day was by no means over. Not only was there an excellent lunch but also a true masterclass on joint replacement and pain management (both before and after). I had no idea about the possibilities out there and my (single) hip replacement along with a couple of Ibuprofen before venturing out seem positively amateurish compared to what can be achieved.
Yet again we eschewed the traditional team photos and instead focussed on some action shots off (and on) Court. A selection below…


Thanks to Peter & Simon for their marking!