The 2009 Season

Lost

For the second year the Winchester House match got the season off to a pretty tough start. Their senior first pair were exceptional and we didn't win a single game against them but other matches were much closer. Taylor and Wright beat their second pair in the first match of the day but failed to repeat this standard of play in their other two matches. Pratt and Bullard at second pair improved considerably during the afternoon as did Francklin and Buxton at third pair. The Colts struiggled to win many games although Chamberlayne and McGrath at first pair played very competitively against the Winchester House first pair. Overall it was a good warm up match and we played some promising tennis.  

In our match against Great Houghton the 1st VI played on their grass courts and this forced both teams to concentrate very closely on the ball as the bounce was very unpredictable. Our senior boys played very well and won 7-2. Buxton and Pratt had an exciting win over the first pair after a tie-breaker finish. Rather strangely Wright and Taylor lost to the same pair 2-6! They had obviously switched off by then. Francklin and Bullard played the most consistently good tennis of the afternoon only losing 3 games in total. The Colts match was very close. We were able to play three pairs and we won 5-4 in the final analysis. Chamberlayne and Resines had an excellent afternoon losing only 3 games in the entire match.  

Our fixture against Spratton Hall involved just two senior and junior pairs. Spratton had a particularly strong 1st pair in the senior team involving at year 7 county player and we lost both matches against them. However, we convincingly won both matches against their second pair. The senior match ended at 2-2 although Spratton won two more games than us. Overall we needed to be more consistent in all aspects of our game. In the colts match our first pair did not perform quite as well as usual and lost against their opposite pair. However, we won both matches against their second pair with Harry McGrath and Tom Buxton doing well to come back from 4-0 down to win against their opposite pair. The matche was drawn 2-2 although Spratton won 3 more games than us.