The D Day landings anniversary saw a buoyant and confident Peterborough City flood onto the courts at Needingworth to replay a match that was rained off whilst they were leading 4-0.  You would be forgiven if you thought the match would resume with the opposition already in prime position but the current rules dictate that unless 5 sets have been played, any previous score is wiped clean and the match replayed from scratch - so – in true Needingworth fashion, it’s all to play for.  

First up to face the formidable pairing of Wayne and Lisa were John and Jane.  The rubber started off badly for the 2 J’s and they quickly fell behind.  By now, both the Peterborough pair were in full flow and playing flawless tennis.  With everything picked off at the net and Wayne’s deep aggressive slice landing just inside the baseline every time, our pair were never allowed to settle into any routine and the set quickly disappeared.  The 2nd set started off in much the same way when an inexplicable wobble allowed the 2 J’s get back to 2-3.  With both teams fighting tooth and nail to win a very long Lisa service game it was the Peterborough team who came out triumphant and with normal service resumed, went on to win the set.

On the other court, Peterborough’s established pairing of Andy and Suzie were up against our own Nikki and Rob.  With Nikki holding firm and returning serves to delightfully awkward places, Rob had no problem popping them away for winners and just to compound the opposition’s woes, the Needingworth pair were just as strong when the roles were reversed.   With games finishing very quickly, Needingworth were never in any trouble and only lost 2 games on their way to a win.

With the prospect of a mouth-watering matchup in the reverse doubles, the crowd settled down to marvel at the skills of Nikki and Rob and the Peterborough pairing of Wayne and Lisa; he was not to be disappointed. Peterborough must have thought “this is easy” when Rob dished them up an easy break of serve without having to try.  Clearly, this was a crafty plan to lull them into some sort of false security as the Needingworth pair broke straight back and then every other service game they had.  To make thing worse, Nikki didn’t lose a point on her serve at all in the 1st set and all of Wayne’s slicing and dicing had no effect and were easily dispatched.  Nikki’s supreme serving and returning continued into the 2nd set and the combination of this and Rob’s sheer athleticism around the court demoralized the opposition, who by this time knew that the Needingworth pair had done to them, what they’d done to the 2 J’s – never allowed a minutes peace to get into any routine.

Knowing the probable outcome from the other court, both the 2J’s and Peterborough were under immense pressure to produce something.  The 1st set was quite a tussle and with both teams alternating between fantastic shots and uncharacteristic errors, to all intents and purposes, it looked like both pairs were hellbent on losing the set.  Fortunately, Peterborough did and with Needingworth taking the set 6-4, the win was secured.  With the result decided, the 2nd set saw both pairs relax and start to play much better tennis with balls being struck very nicely into all the spaces.  Entertaining as it was, the scores were reversed, giving Peterborough the set.

With a gutsy performance from both teams, it was off to the “pavilion” for a well-earned glass of something and a good old-fashioned chinwag.

From the spectator point of view, this was a nail-biting, roller-coaster team performance.  However, to watch Rob in action, getting to balls that take us more senior players a day to get to, left an old man wishing for his youth again.