Rain break fails to halt Matcham & Gale to win

ONE pair glad to have a very heavy downpour in their match, which was enough to stop play, was Steve Matcham and Dave Gale.

- DAVE AND SUE GALE

There was a very close first set between them and Andrew Regan and Pete Ireland in Men’s B, with many games going to deuce. Steve and Dave had gone 5-2 up but couldn’t close it out and Pete and Andrew took them to a tie-break which they won. Then there was a heavy rain shower and they departed to the dry of the clubhouse.

Despite some close rallies after this, with Andy and Pete getting some tight angles and good volleys, the unplanned break favoured Dave and Steve who went on to take the second set. The final set was again very close and the score did not reflect this with Steve and Dave winning it and overall 5-6, 6-4, 6-0.

There were some hard fought rallies between John Putman and Tim Gibbard when they faced Richard Rawlings and Kamran Khan, but Tim’s serving was outstanding and he was probably the stand out player as he and John won 6-2, 6-2, 6-3.

Lawrence Hay and Arash Dinari were put to the test by Ross Bunney and Jon Jacobs in a contest that was far closer than the scoreline suggests. The games regularly went to deuce and there were some thrilling shots being played across both sides of the net. Ultimately though, it was

Lawrence and Arash who took the win 6-1, 6-3, 6-3.

James Driscoll and Mark Skerton were too strong for Lester Ellicott and Richard Turner winning 6-2, 6-1, 6-0.

Bob Verey and Andy Weymouth eventually got going against Chris Welland and Varun Philip in Men’s A, but Chris and Varun had by then won the first two sets and they won 6-0, 6-2, 4-6.

There was a tight first set when Alex Cox and sub Dan Chadder played Mike Smith and Nick Souness where all players had some great moments and some very poor moments at the net.