With the Needingworth Men’s team perched nicely at the top of the table, it was a wee trip to Cambourne to face one of Sue Rich’s prodigies, the 16 year old Darius (taking an interlude from GCSEs to play) and his father Navid, a pairing who adopted a similar strategy to our own father & son King pairing – son hits blistering half court balls and father just keeps getting everything back at a more sedate pace ready for son to kill the ball. John and Rob fell foul of this tactic throughout the 1st set but by displaying their own skills and holding their own serve managed to stay on par until the very end when they broke the Cambourne pair to pinch a very tight tie-break.
Fortunately, on the other court, Colin and Sam playing as the No 2’s, had a much easier passage. Using a combination of power, accuracy and downright good tennis, they overpowered their opposition in double quick time and lost only 2 games in the process. As always, the advantage of finishing early is that it allows you to have a look at your next opponents. That and a chat with the travelling Fab supporters of Lizzi, Jane and Labrador Maisy.
With everyone engaged in the unfolding drama of John & Rob’s 2nd set, gasps of amazement could be heard drifting in the breeze as time and time again, the big shots went in. The difference in this set though, was the one thing 16-year olds haven’t got – experience and so with a combination of better net play and a good dose of “doubles savvy” the Needingworth pair got the vital break and took the set 6-4.
Now the problem with watching a good tie is you get caught up in the moment and forget to take care of other “little” things until all of a sudden, you think “ah ah, better go, I’ll never last another 2 sets”. Sadly, I can’t tell you who was at fault but to say it upset the Cambourne’s captain is an understatement, which only helped Sam to play with attitude and hit his groundies much harder. Sadly, the Colin, Sam combo lost out to the quick quick slow style of home team and lost the first set.
On the other court, John and Rob were cruising. Taking the 1st set 6-1 and enjoying a 5-0 lead in the 2nd, that old enemy complacency crept up on the unsuspecting pair. Confident of winning by letting the opposition make mistakes is not the best way to win a match. Fortunately, after being pegged back to 5-5, the lesson sunk in - stay in the moment - don’t wait for it to happen - make it happen. And they did, taking the last 2 games in time to enjoy 20 mins of finale.
What a finale it was. The Needingworth pair having learnt from the 1st set, worked hard to avoid rallying with Darius under any circumstances and went on to win last set on a big tie break.