On Sunday afternoon, Ed, Riccardo, Roman and Niklas made their way to old rivals Harrow Baptist Tennis Club to play our first National League match of the summer season.

In the singles, our players 1 and 2, Niklas and Ed, had fairly straightforward matches against opposition son and father, Arjan and Harpreet, but our players 3 and 4, Riccardo and Roman,  had tougher matches against Algerian clay-court player Samy and big Atul.

The doubles went the same way, Niklas and Ed always in control against Arjan and Harpreet, but Riccardo and Roman unable to break down Samy and Atul.

So the match was level with the scores at 6-6 (see details below), and we were headed for a shootout. We knew the shootout rules required 2 players to play a singles tiebreak and 2 players to play a doubles tiebreak and that players 1 and 2 could not both pay the singles, but Harpreet asked if it was allowed for payers 1 and 2 both to play doubles and allow players 3 and 4 to play the singles. Ed thought it probably was not allowed but promised to look up the rules on the Middlesex Tennis website and found this:

What?! The rules had changed! Harrow Baptists therefore had won on number of games played. Disappointed, before heading off, we settled down to a nice buffet supper in a pleasant family atmosphere created by both teams having father & son members (Harpreet & Arjan for HBTC and Roman & Niklas for CTC)!

It was only when Ed had returned home that he had another look at the Middlesex Tennis website and realised he’d been looking at the rules for the seniors category, not the Open category. The rules for the Open category state;

So we should have played a shootout! 

The matter has been referred to the League Secretary and we’ll find out in due course what she decides…

Full scores as below:

Arjan v Niklas: 3-6, 3-6

Harpreet v Ed: 2-6, 3-6

Samy v Riccardo: 6-0, 6-0

Atul v Roman: 6-3, 6-1

Arjan & Harpreet v Niklas & Ed: 2-6, 3-6

Samy & Atul v Riccardo & Roman: 6-2, 6-2