After a drop off at the end of last year, and a slow but encouraging start this year, Club Night finally felt like it was back to full strength last night. There was a good mix between the games, and certain folks making use of the wvening to get their match practice in.
All good stuff, and nice to see a few faces for the first time this year.
As an additional note, the last club night in Feb will have small singles tournament (details and participants tbc). It won't take over the night like the last tournament did, so feel free to still come down whether you want to participate or not.
So, Friday 27th saw our New Hall team in their first outing this year, missing Becs, but with Ruth stepping in the captain was really keen to start the year with a victory. There was some discussion over the pairings, as Ruth and Ben aren't regulars in the squad, so a Martin switched the game plan up a little to accommodate.
The match was against Loughborough Town, who we had played two days prior in the guise of our Men's team... 2 of the players from each side had been involved, so had a good idea of what to expect from their opposition.
Unfortunately things started going downhill from the off... Ben and Sam took the field as the first mens pair, and neither player really took the game to their opponents. they managed to pull back in the second game and pull out a 1-1 draw, but this seemed to set the tone for the evening.
Martin and Sam repeated the performance, finishing 1-1, and shifting Tracey out of her normal spot in both ladies, the team only took a single game from the 4 on offer there. 3-5 at the end of the levels, but the hope was to come through strong on the mixed.
Pairs showed flashes of what they were capable of, dominating the rallies at times, but consistently 'not quite getting there'. It was a real shame to see the scoreline just slipping away as pairings the team felt that they should have won lacked the expected results... Andrea and Ben lost both to Loughborough's teenage talent, Sam and Ruth also lost both to their opposing pair. Martin and Tracey were able to go 1-1 against their opponents in the first mixed, unfortunately bringing the team to 4-10, and the victory now beyond their reach.
A small fight back lead to an overall 11-7 loss that the captain correctly attributed to several players 'not turning up'... It happens, but it is certainly frustrating when you walk off court knowing you could have, should have, and probably would have turned in a different result on a different day.
Still very much in the mix for the league, here's hoping that the team can return to form on their next outing.
The first match of the year for our mens first team, and the captain had a full squad to pick from. A revamp to the lineup starred Ian & Martin, reunited Karthick & Neil after their RM1 days last season, and put Steve & Ben together in their first outing.
The team rolled up on time, for a pleasant change, along with Loughborough Town's only 2 pairs... So for the second time this year, we readied ourselves to start 3-0 up, and do our best to take the remaining 6.
Overall it was one of the closest fought matches of the season, with each pair winning and losing one (plus the freebie win) rubber, 2 pairs beating Loughborough's stronger pair, but losing to the second...
Definitely a team to watch out for in season's to come, with an average age probably lower than any one person from Trinity! Unfortunately their 3rd pair, by their own admission, doesn't usually take any rubbers so they are suffering a bit in overall results.
For us it was a good result after a change round, and we'll see what happens in our next match, which is the return leg a month from now!