A Close Shave for Wallace and Gromit.
As we all know, Wallace and Gromit's window cleaning business has been taking off and they have been as brash to suggest that other franchises (such as George's 9th league unbeatables) could learn a thing or two about winning over the competition. However, tonight's exploits, which might be termed 'Curse of the Werepig' or something similar, resulted in the lady having a very close shave.
The bad news started with Phil crying off with a gammy ankle. Even Wallace's famous ankle rubbing invention could not get him back, so we relied on the return of the flu-recovering Gavin B at 3 with the in form Gavin G promoted to 2. Against the second team in the league, would we cope without our No. 1 Flip (out for the season) and our No. 3, InviciPhil?
On two courts, it was difficult to keep track. Non-playing captain Bullen was on first on one court against an opponent literally twice his size also called Colin (fooled no-one) with Gavin G on the other court against an opponent who gave Richard a tough evening in the first round. Bullen went quickly 2-0 up and it looked it was all over. But the fat guy threw in some tactics, delayed the game, argued calls etc and briefly Bullen was off guard and it was 2-2. Eventually the fat guy ran out of steam, but after a ripping 9-6 battle (from 6-6) in the last. 3-2.
Gavin G battled gamely and managed to get 2-1 up before letting it slide, the game being closed out eventually 2-3 by Peter.
Honours even after the first brace of matches. Tea, Gromit?
So Gavin B went on against Bernard on Court 1 and let the first game slide 8-10, before closing in for the kill 3-1. Feigning illness clearly worked nicely.
Which left Richard requiring a win. Unfortunately, his opponent was 15 years his junior and seemed to have stopped making the mistakes he made against John in the first round. Hmmm. So, it wasn't going to be a victory. All we needed was one game...at least for a points count out. Mark gave Richard a big thumping in the first two games, leaving the Chamber support with mild heart palpitations. Somehow, from somewhere, Richard managed to pull a third game out of the hat which would have seen off most of 4th league. Having got 8-2 up, he managed to tease us all by letting the youngster get back to 8-6 before finally closing it out. Exhausted from these efforts, he collapsed pathetically to 0-9 in the fourth and final game.
Game result 9-9.
So the accountants got out their beans and started doing the company accounts. Somehow, we managed to squeeze through on a 13 point margin. Phew, that was a close shave.
Time to retire to the bar/restaurant for Wenleysdale and tea. Served by tasty ladies. We almost had a full complement (which would have been the first of the season) but Gavin B cried off with domestic wrangles on his way to the restaurant.
Lessons for match reporter: Never tempt fate. Take heart pills before watching deciding game.
