And so it came to pass that the intrepid and (thus far) victorious members of the 10th league traveled to the outer reaches of studentdom to play on the strangely urine coloured courts of UJ. This was to be a season maker or breaker as UJ were following fairly closely on our heels in the league standings. In the first round, we had managed a clean sweep against them, but with all games being very tight and down to the wire. This time around, the team composition was somewhat different, and the results were, well, read on:
No. 1 Nigel vs. Reedwaan: So I’d been warned about this guy being able to drop the ball from anywhere and teasing weird angles from all corners of the court. But still he surprised me and zap! 0-9 in the first. After some stern words and a little couching between games, I managed to tighten up and take the next two games without letting Reedwaan get into his stride. Should have pressed the advantage home though and finished it, but Reedwaan was coming up with some amazing shots and I was outclassed in the last 2. So first blood went to UJ 2-3.
No. 3 Tom vs. Alistair: Tom was busy picking his game up after a long absence and was up against a runner. Going down in the first two, Tom started hitting a good length in the third and took the game easily. His opponent bolstered up to take the fourth though. That made us two down with two to go.
No. 2 Phil A vs. Bradley: Phil started off with a dominant display and cowed Bradley into submission taking the first two games without really being challenged. Something changed in the third game though – perhaps it was the extended break that his opponent took. Bradley takes the third and comes back from 8-5 down to 8 apiece. Here Phil makes the big call and goes for 1… and wins the serve back. Only to lose it again and see the game go 8-9 against him. Hell hath no fury like a squash player losing a couple of games he should have won. Phil turned up the heat and blew Bradley away in the final game to take the match.
No. 4 Phil P vs. Phenyo: Phil was fresh back from a month of sun on French soil. And what a way to come back – the evening depended on him winning 3-0 to give the team a victory. So his raison d’etre was to crush a player dubbed “The Weird One” by Steph in the first round. It seems that elements of weirdness were still there but that didn’t prevent Phil from swarming to 2-0 up. Here his thoughts must have drifted to French wine flowing like nectar and to Mona Lisa’s smile because the weird one made a comeback – moving around the court to pick up everything that Phil put out there. Phenyo took the next two games and that was it for the team. Sacre bleu! But Phil could still salvage our pride and deny UJ some points by taking the match. Which is what he did by staging a coup d’etat in the final game and leave the weird one crushed and defeated. Good work after a 5 week lay-off.
End result was a loss, albeit a narrow one. Lets see whether we can clean up in our final two games and win this league thing.
Summary:
No. 1 Nigel lost 2-3: 0-9, 9-2, 9-6, 0-9, 2-9
No. 2 Phil A won 3-2: 9-5, 9-6, 5-9, 8-9, 9-2
No. 3 Tom lost 1-3: 3-9, 4-9, 9-1, 6-9
No. 4 Phil P won 3-2: 9-4, 9-6, 3-9, 4-9, 9-6
Final result 9-12
