On a very pleasant Sunday morning, John Fab, Peter, Colin and John W all travelled to Sunny Cambridge to play against the pairings of Omar, Ted, Tom and Francesco.
In the 1st rubber, John and Peter played the Cambs first pair of Captain Omar and Ted Hope (a young Sue Rich prodigy). Being used to hard courts, the Needingworth pair took time to adjust to Astro and because there appeared to be flat dead areas in the court, Peter was missing some shots by just a few inches. John started well but lost a dodgy service game and continued his ill fortune by continually trying to rally forehands with a kid that does that every day (John, trying the same thing all the time and expecting a different result = first signs of madness). With Omar managing to hold serve at crucial times and the youngster gaining confidence, Needingworth lost first set 4-6. However, the second set was totally different and by utilising their huge tennis experience, doing all the basics right, poaching more and making every return low, mistakes crept into the Cambridge pair and hey presto 2nd set to the visitors.
Meanwhile next door in a very tight match, our boys’ volleys weren’t working and although getting into winning positions, lost ground, especially as Francesco, the young Italian continually landed huge serves. Sadly, the tie break went to the hosts. The second set was equally tight but by now, Tom had also gained confidence and started serving solidly and saw the hosts home, meaning 3-1 lead to Cambridge and a win on the cards.
No worry. Rattled but quietly confident of reversing our fortunes. John and Pete found the style of Tom and Francesco to suit them and ran away 6-0 first set. In the 2nd set, Pete’s first game had several deuces, but he finally held the crucial opener. Francesco’s huge serve was met by many tasty returns which made him unsure what to do next. Fortunately, John’s serve kicked in nicely and Needingworth took the second set at a cantor; enjoyed and applauded by the nice Korean gentleman we played vets against last week!
With time available to sit in what was now lovely sunshine and enjoy the last set next door, safe in the knowledge that Needingworth had won the 1st to secure a draw.
By now, the Cambridge pair had lost all their confidence in their smashes and with both our boys now finding great rhythm with their serves and at long last finding their volleys, John used the floated deep ball to perfection giving the youngster the classic no pace ball.
Boom, boom, 2nd set win, so the visitors went away from Cambridge with a win that didn’t look on at all!