Although Handforth have a similar number of members to Mersey they
were una
ble to get a full team out. They offered to concede the game. We
offered them Celia & 4 competitive sets! And so it was that we started
4 sets up with everything to play for.

Looking good Alice & Rachel won the first game convincingly and Neil &
Jerry were 5-1 up. Celia then started to show us why she plays for the
third team. She & Margaret won the first set for Handforth 6-2.
Although Alice played some good, deep ground strokes and Rachel was
volleying like a demon Handforth took the next set by the same score.

Meanwhile, Neil & Jerry were still fighting for the first set. A 5-1
lead had become 5-5 for no obvious reason - A great service game from
the young lad, Sean, the odd missed volley and just a general slowing
of pace. The first set was sadly lost 7-5. But Neil & Jerry threw off
their disappointment and attacked the second set.
The pairs were well matched and Neil & Jerry fought bravely but lost
6-4.

Onto the mixed. Neil insisted that Jerry should play as first man.
Rachel & Alice had a better and potentially winning solution. On the
points when the woman was at the back of the court, Alice would play
and make the most of some killer returns. A quick swap over, using a
switching of hats to confuse the opposition and Rachel would come into
the net to kill off any volleys. Combined we could make the perfect,
all-round player.

But they overheard our plotting and for some reason didn't think that
should be allowed. Some people are so inflexible.

So the second pairing saw Rachel and Neil take on Celia & Sean's Dad,
Phil.
It was a swift couple of sets but Rachel & Neil were happy in the
knowledge they still won by default, even though the scoreline read
0-6, 0-6.

Jerry won his serve and the next 3 games went with serve taking us to
2-2. It stayed closed, many of the games going to deuce. Jerry played
some great shots and was getting to everything at the net. Alice
continued to play some killer shots from the back. But both also made
a few mistakes. They were disappointed to lose the first set 6-4.

The second set started badly, going 3-0 down. But Jerry & Alice fought
back winning the next game. But they went down 3-6 in the end.

Final score 4 sets to 4, as none of Celia's sets could be counted. Our
first points. There'll be more on the way I'm sure.

And then upstairs to the best sports & fitness club in the UK
(official winner of the Club Match Award 2009) for excellent home-
made lemon drizzle cake.

A thoroughly enjoyable evening even if the result didn't quite go the
way we wanted.

Alice Bell