Ketton B arrived early to get a feel for the Needingworth courts and even though the weather was surprising cool and windy, looked impressive in warm-up. The first rubber saw Caroline and Jim take on Barbara and Niall, whilst Di and Mark had the pleasure of Alex’s and Jonathan’s company.
The first set for the Needingworth 1st pair was a nip and tuck affair and despite some long rallies, went with serve. Barbara was proving to be like a brick wall and happy to rally all day long, whether the ball came to her forehand or backhand. Worse still, she had a low throw up on the serve, the ball just skimmed the net and stay low; a good serve on tarmac and probably devastating on the astro at Ketton. The only option was to exploit her partner and that’s exactly what we did at the crucial time, breaking his serve to take the 1st set. After being broken in the 1st game of the 2nd set and breaking back straight away, it looked like the 2nd set was going to follow a similar pattern. Alas, no. After hitting a purple patch, Needingworth forged ahead to win the set 6-1.
Mark and Di were having their own troubles on the other court. Leading 4-1 and looking good, the young Alex seemed to wake up and come into her own. Her power and stylish play along with the deviousness of Jonathan’s ambidextrous play (yes – he had 2 forehands) saw the momentum change and the visitors went on to win 7-5. With games getting longer and longer, the momentum seemed to continue and Ketton found themselves 4-1 up before the Needingworth pair gathered themselves up for one last push and gradually clawed back the deficit and even went on to lead 6-5 only to be broken again to head for the inevitable tie-break. Exhausted by their herculean efforts, the visitors calmly and efficiently took the breaker. Not all was lost though. The long rubber gave the Needingworth 1st pair an opportunity to suss out the ambidextrous Jonathan and look for any weaknesses.
With no rest, it was straight onto the next rubber. Clearly tired from their previous efforts, the fully rested Ketton pair seized their moment and took both sets as well as winning a quick trip to the pub to safeguard delivery of the chips.
Our 1st pair also capitalised on Ketton’s fatigue and took the set 6-2. Although the 2nd set was much closer and Caroline had to deal with a lot of balls, the match was always Needingworth’s to lose. Towards the end, by taking extra care on returns, it was Ketton who crumbled to the pressure and a valuable draw was secured.
As a footnote, you must take your hat off to the quick thinking Jonathan. Most players have enough difficulty deciding where they’re going to try and play the ball, never mind adding into the equation “which hand will I use to play it with”.