A Game of One-Half – Men’s A v St. Agnes C

It was a bank holiday weekend so the rain was inevitable. You can’t cancel on the strength of a satellite image though, so we compromised and called off the barbeque. At 11.30, the predicted downpour had not appeared so Matt and Colin raced to the supermarket; so did James as it was too late for the master chef to begin baking. Meanwhile, Jim was tossing his salad.

Colin arrived just before 1.00pm to find three St. Agnes cars in his usual space so he had to risk annoying a different neighbour. A fourth St. Agnes vehicle was yet to arrive but, owing to the impending monsoon, we decided to begin anyway.
Colin and Matt were the number two pair and opened, as usual with an apology for any likely bad bounces. The visitors had been before and acknowledged that it was the same for both sides; at least metaphorically, our bumpy courts were a level playing field. They were still happy when they took the first set 6-2.

‘We need to change our tactics,’ suggested Matt. Colin drew on his twenty years of coaching experience and came up with,

‘We need to hit more balls in and they need to start missing a few’.

Meanwhile, the fourth St. Agnes player turned up with tales of how, unlike Captain Jim, he trusted his satellite which led him down every backstreet St. Ives had to offer.

Colin and Matt’s tactics appeared to work as they won the second set 6-3 taking the rubber to a deciding tie-break. Colin returned a St. Agnes serve and apologised for the complete lack of bounce that followed. Matt served, managing to hit the same spot on our impartial court. We raced ahead to a 7-0 lead before they won a few points and we prepared to change ends at 9-3. St. Agnes disagreed and waited at the net to shake hands at 10-2. Colin and Matt talked themselves out of victory and played a final thrilling point to win 10-3.

As it was beginning to rain, the number twos ran to the clubhouse to watch the completion of the other match which was bound to last ages due to the late start. This assumption turned out to be incorrect as Jim and James wrapped it up 6-1, 6-1 seconds later.

Jim wanted to get on with the next round but St. Agnes were keen to call it a day. As the debate grew heavier, so did the rain and the courts were soon underwater. Under the rules (we think), we split the points for the second half and won the match 8-3. St. Agnes went home with two more points than they deserved and Matt went home with more bread than two teams can consume at one sitting.