It was an early start for the chaps from Wheldrake as we all needed to be at Harrogate for 9-50, with Phil finding it harder having been out on the town the previous night! So, after the meet and greet we surveyed the Harrogate facilities with envy: lovely club house perched on top of a gentle incline looking down on fantastic new 3G surface courts. No excuses today chaps!

Phil and Paul were at #1, Andrew and Colin at #2, with Captain Murtagh and Don alongside at #3.

The key moment of the tie came in the fourth game on #3 court when, turning sharply and scampering after a well-placed lob from Don……pop!..........Unfortunately the Harrogate player pulled his hamstring………and that was it, game over for Harrogate, rotten luck for them.

Effectively that gave us that rubber 1-11, and thus the subsequent games against Harrogate #3 0-12.

Despite the anti-climax there was still a heated battle on #1 court, with Phil and Paul just going down 7-5. Meanwhile, on #2 court, Colin and Andrew were having a real ding-dong battle, and at one stage were 4-1 down. That was enough for Colin, who then proceeded to take his trousers off and reveal those legs – rare for them to get an outing as early as May.

 From that strategic masterpiece, Wheldrake’s #2 pair went full throttle, winning that rubber 5-7, and then following it up with a 3-9 romp against Harrogate #1 to give the dynamic duo a maximum from round 3.

Wheldrake’s #3 pair found themselves at 5-6 and 15-40 two matches in a row.

The first match v Harrogate #1, they blew it and wasted two match points to scrape a half. They learnt their lesson, and second time around Don dispatched a trade-mark slam dunk volley to secure the point v Harrogate #3.

Phil and Paul finished things off with a half against Harrogate #2 and then we were all ready for a well-earned lie down.

                                         RESULT    33 – 75                                     

POINTS  2 – 10