I am late, sorry about that, but had a hectic weekend with two gigs on Saturday and then a rapid trip to and from Birmingham. It was a social and sporting week with the Club Quiz on Friday and Apsley A kids at home on Saturday playing Riverside. Also a little report on the previous Saturday’s exploits of the Apsley Bees. Photo: Apsley A at home to Riverside. (Quiz photo in What’s On though).

Start at the beginning: Saturday 7th September and the Apsley Bees travelled to Compton. “Final match of the season to decide which of the 2 teams finishes 3rd and which finishes 4th. Tough start for Harry Thomas & Connie Allen playing mixed at 1 who succumbed to the Compton 1's 2-6, 2-6. Pete Colling & Ola Osuch playing at 2 against the Compton 2's were just pipped 6-7 in a close first set but fell away to lose the second set 1-6. Mark Wellby & Estella Hurlock playing at 3 fared much better with a consistent 6-3, 6-3 win against the Compton 3's. However, Steve Johnson & Julie Kelly playing at 4 fell away badly after leading 2-1 in the first set to lose 2-6, 1-6. In the ladies doubles Connie & Estella playing at 1 had a tough game losing to the Compton 1's 1-6, 1-6. However Ola & Julie playing at 2 pulled off a good win against the Compton 2's 6-4, 6-2. In the men’s doubles Harry & Pete playing at 1 suffered a heavy defeat of 0-6, 1-6 against a strong Compton first pair to give Compton the overall win.  So in the last rubber, now playing for pride only Mark & Steve had a marathon match going on for an hour after everyone else had finished. Didn't look that way when they were 5-7, 2-4 down but they somehow managed to claw back to take the 2nd set 6-4. Another long set eventually arrived at 6 all for a tie break. So despite being match point down at 5-6, Mark and Steve eventually won it 9-7 for an overall match 3-5 loss and some satisfaction as 4th place in Div 1 is the B team's best ever finish in Apsley. Well done to everyone who contributed during the year and roll on next year”. Thanks to Steve for that report.

Friday Night’ Quiz was an outstanding success. I turned up after feeding the troops (Leon’s last home meal before returning to university) and the place was buzzing. I was sent to sell raffle tickets. Christine tells me that 71 people turned up with 14 teams who settled down to battle it out. With questions ranging from geography, science, nature, general knowledge and history, everyone was kept on their toes. There were 2 picture rounds to complete the quiz. Roger Travers kindly set the questions but then decided to go off on holiday leaving Steve to be question-master. Liz Taylor's team won with only 5 participants which sounds like they had recruited a couple of specialists in to me. The raffle had some lovely prizes donated (and procured) by the committee (thank you,) and a grand total of over £500 was taken. So as they did not drink enough we will have a hall hire feebut should still raise over £450.

Saturday afternoon Riverside arrived with a few younger players to face our youngest ever team. Mats & Summer Colling started with a 6-0, 7-6, James Ardley & Magda Kornijczuk dominated for a 6-1, 6-1, Alex Billingham & Anna Vinnell fought to a 6-4, 4-6, 7-6 win and Milan Bharadia & Nakshatra Sridhar won 6-1, 6-0. For the Girls, Summer & Magda won 6-2, 6-0 and Anna & Nakshatra gave away no quarter winning 6-0, 6-0. In the Boys Mats & James won 6-2, 6-3 but Alex and Milan lost 3-6, 4-6. This must have been the youngest ever Thornden Apsley team with an average age of 17.5 with Summer as the older citizen!

Next Week: Nothing! Will do a report of some sort even if it is only slanderous rubbish.

Title: The Cars, 1979 (Ric Okasek has moved to the concert hall in the sky).