On a glorious sunny and windless day that made ideal conditions for quality tennis, Needingworth put out the same Super Seniors team that triumphed against Peterborough City.   So, the winning combination of Jim, Mike, Craig and Graham hosted the highly rated Cambridge team of Philip, Paul, Herbert and Johnathan.

Knowing that Cambridge were unused to playing on hard courts, Jim and Craig used home advantage to the full and got off to a flyer against Philip and Herbert.  Before they knew what hit them, Needingworth’s solid shots won the day and the set was over with Cambridge trailing by a set.

Mike and Graham were having a much more difficult and uncomfortable time against Paul and Johnathan.  With Graham rusty from just arriving home from his holiday, it was always going to be difficult to regain your timing against a team that were content to loft the ball in the air and keep the rallies going for as long as possible.  Of course, this style of play is also a clever way of negating all the pace that Mike generated.  With the home team soldiering on in the intense heat, they crucially broke back to level the scores at 5 all.  Unfortunately, that glimmer of hope was cruelly snatched away again and the scores on the door moved to 1-1.

With the change of partnerships came a change of fortune, Mike and Craig quickly got into full swing, and with both hitting the ball sweetly, performed a quick demolition job on Paul and Herbert.  Unfortunately, Philip and Johnathan did the same thing on Jim and Graham.  Still nothing to separate the teams, so everything rested on the result of the last rubber.

With the temperature getting hotter and hotter and they balls becoming increasingly bouncier, Jim and Mike got down to the task of beating Philip and Paul.  After the initial shock of the much faster pace, Mike quickly got his eye in and started to do some serious damage with that evil backhand slice.  Philip and Paul played well, but we played better and took the team into the lead with a 6-3 win.

Now of course, everything rested on the result of the match on the other court.  Fortunately, Craig, who had played solidly all morning continued to do so but by now, Graham had found his timing and cut out the errors. Just as well really, because Herbert and Johnathan were going through a bit of a purple patch.  In the end though, they couldn’t cut the mustard and the Needingworth pair got the all-important win.

A great morning’s tennis in the sunshine was followed by a first-rate buffet.  Thanks, must go to the chief cook and bottle washer who delivered it as if by magic, a mere 10 minutes after the finish of the match.

Well done team for playing and winning in excruciating heat and well done Mrs Hunter for providing an excellent buffet.