On an uncharacteristically warm still November night, the Buckden Men’s 1 team came to visit. After beating the Mixed team last week, they were looking forward to the prospect of completing the double by beating the Men’s team. Skipper John, resplendent in his beard and looking like some sort of pirate, teamed up with Pete Jeffery, who stepped up to the plate in our time of need, despite carrying a chronic injury. This left Richard Beadles drawing the short straw and forced to partner Jim as the No 1 pairing.
The match couldn’t have got off to a worse start. In the blink of an eye, the Needingworth 1’s lagged behind 4-1 before getting a handle on the opposition’s fierce serves and cross court rallies. However, lots of frantic running and good old-fashioned solid play brought the Needingworth pair back to level pegging and then 7-5 first set winners. Despite some ferocious Richard serves and brutal rallies, the much younger Buckden pair were mighty relieved to win the 2nd set, especially as on the other court, John and Pete were running around like teenagers, hitting the ball freely and just generally enjoying themselves. Some savvy play and signature rasping backhand Pete returns secured both sets for the Needingworth pair.
Richard and Jim were lucky, even though they were moving from the good court to the dark side, they didn’t have to hang around, because as they finished one match, they stepped straight into the next rubber. Still pumped up, they continued to play aggressively and took the 1st set to secure a draw. Following an exceptionally long 1st game in the second set that sadly went the way of Buckden, the Needingworth pair fought hard but seemed to run out of steam and to the jubilation of the Buckden pair, lost the 2nd set.
On the good court, John and Pete were giving it their all. However, the waiting around before their rubber did nothing to help Pete’s bad knee and even though he continued to chase after everything, the pain he was feeling was clearly evident and the two of them went on to lose both their sets.
Given the effort everyone put in, a draw seemed a fair result, but didn’t skipper John get it right though. Buckden are sitting high in the league, but clever captaining saw the right team members play their best tennis at the times that mattered, so I suspect Buckden will think that this was a win that got away from them.