Our first Club match of the season proved enjoyable but the Irish, especially the visiting Irish, proved more than a match for the Home team.

Led by Roland Budd, the visiting Irish were in fine form in spite of playing what (to me at least) looked like an exhausting schedule of Singles and Doubles in their tournament the previous day. A brief glimmer of success was provided by Andy Smith who was in imperious form against Rustom Manecksha. On Blue, Roland clearly decided that mistakes were not his thing and barely put a foot (or ball) wrong against a hard working Julian Stafford.
 
 

A couple of contrasting 3-setters followed, both going to the IRTA. Mark Rossiter belied his years and losing the first set by keeping his composure and ball striking on track to take that critical third. Howard played the role of comeback kid after narrowly losing the first set against Tony Penny. In fact so emphatic was his second set showing that I decided lunch was in order and I was somewhat surprised to hear the ‘Oh it’s 5-All’..
 
 
The last match was an entertaining Doubles struggle where the average age was ~40 on one side of the net and circa 50 on the other. However the 50 side had a far greater variance in years and prevailed by that narrowest of margins in the third. I hope I’m that mobile when I get to Mike Bolton’s vintage!
Apologies to Richard Ramjane, John(ny O’)Lees and Gerald Smith who ‘missed out’ on being snapped. Many thanks to Peter & Kees for marking and organising and we look forward to welcoming the IRTA back to the Home of Real Tennis next year or even a visit to a re-opened court in Dublin…

A link to a Google photos gallerynof the above images and much more photos.app.goo.gl. 

And finally the scores!