It’s quite a way and the ‘end of half term’ weekend is probably not the best one to choose but one of the more characterful Tennis Court awaits. It’s had a varied life including a tank repair depot during WW2 (the vehicle entrance is visible from the outside). But it was restored to its rightful use in the 90’s and by all accounts is thriving. A warm welcome awaits including matching cutlery…

…and sage advice. The Court takes a bit of getting used, IMHO, with some low bounce which keeps you on your toes (mentally) and your knees bent (physically) unless you just volley everything in sight (Neil & Andrew’s preferred modus operandi). Fiona Brown gave it her best shot (and serve) but came up short before CURTC’s ‘Dream Team’ of Nigel Brown and David Pimblett took to the Court. Alas they too were a little to slow to adjust and unable to stimulate any sibling rivalry between their opponents.

Interestingly, the next three matches all show up as draws in the RTO database. But of course we don’t have such a non-american concept in inter-Club matches. So could CURTC get back on track?
Neil grabbed one back for the travellers in a veritable slug fest. His opponent, Adrian Paterson, was perhaps not the most elegant player, but he really put some cut and spin on his serves and got some clean shots away from seemingly impossible positions.

Next up was Andrew Petrie who instantly adapted to the local conditions and had his opponent, Jeremy Taylor, scrambling to stay in touch. 5-3 to the good in the 2nd set, the match seemed to have brought CURTC level with my match to be the decider, gulp…
But suddenly the tide turned as Andrew agonizingly lost a three setter which at least made my job a bit easier. And after winning the first set to love, my job did indeed seem to be easier. But I failed to win that key ‘1st game of the 2nd set’ and realised that my opponent really did have the bewildering array of serves that I had heard about in the Dedans. I had my chances but we inexorably crept to 5-5 all and 40-all (after 1 deuce) where I cleanly struck the ball into a gallery. Unfortunately one of the galleries on my side of the net….Arrrgghhh…so on to a 3rd set….