25/26
February 2017
Once again we had the pleasure of being hosted by our
friends in Dublin over the weekend of 25/26th February.
We took a team of 6 players and battle commenced on
Friday evening.
Patrick Fleming and Tammy
Bennett were first on court against Captain,
Damian O'Reilly and Michael Roden. Patrick played
superbly and reeled of a close and hard fought, but 3/0,
victory. Michael was thirsting for revenge after losing
to Tammy last year at Roehampton. On steamy hot courts
he quickly went 2/0 up and although Tammy pegged him
back a game he was not to be denied and duly completed
his revenge 3/1.
Jim Flynn was lurking down the order at 3 and surprised
Peter Culver who got going too late -
3/0 to Fitzwilliam. At number 5 Kim Ricks
was far too strong for the only ladies member of the
Dublin team, Christine Mooney and won in relaxed style
3/0.
So with the match score at 2/2 could Steve
Jackson and Gordon Kerr at 1
and 2 conjure a win for the visitors. Their opponents
Gerry Callanan and Karam Singh did not make it easy and
the games see sawed back and forward. Gordon managed to
scrape a 3/2 win against a very stylish opponent which
left The Vets poised for victory. Could Steve somehow
conjure up a win against Ireland Over 50 team player
Gerry? Things did not look good as Steve lost the first
9/0. But as he got used to the courts and heat, he
managed to square the match at 1/1. The next two games
were traded with Steve managing to rescue the 4th from
7/2 down. Fortunately his opponent did not notice his
use of the racket as a crutch, as all the usual delaying
tactics were used to gain him some more air. The final
game was nip and tuck and at 8/8 it was anybody's, but
Steve managed to find just enough to scrape home.
Match score 4/2 to VCGB.
After the match a wonderful meal and copious quantities
of drink were poured down our willing throats. Needless
to say the match the next day proved to be a different
story as we wondered why we had stayed up to the early
hours of the morning.
All pairings were the same except that Kim played
Michael who again show his mastery over the ladies with
a 3/0 win. Tammy played Christine Mooney and recorded a
3/0 victory. However all the other matches were a
reversal of the previous day and all 3/0, except Gordon
who managed to scrape a game. There is a moral here
somewhere........... The match score was thus
4/2 to Fitzwilliam and on the basis of scoring
more games on countback they decided to keep the trophy!
After the game lunch was provided and 2 of our team, Kim
& Gordon, were lucky enough to be offered complimentary
tickets to the France Ireland rugby match at Lansdowne
Road. Gordon's ticket should have been Tammy's, but she
was not around when they were on offer at late notice!
A superb dinner on the Saturday evening concluded events
and we look forward to hosting the event next year in
the UK.
Stephen Jackson
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Patrick Fleming, Steve Jackson, Kim Ricks,
Gordon Kerr, Peter Culver, Tammy Bennet |
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