The fixture against St George’s Hill this year was played on the middle Saturday of the Wimbledon Championships. As neither side had a team member competing in the 3rd round of ”said” Championships, both teams could field their best elite athletes, and me.
The iPubs team was Toby Rust & Alex Allen, Ross Martin & Miles Edmeston (ME - lucky initials). Facing them was a fairly formidable team from St George’s of James Hutchinson & Shamael Chaudhry, Damian Rodriguez & Carsten Greve.
Round 1 saw Ross and Miles take on James and Shamael, with Toby and Alex battling against Damian and Carsten. With the courts, and frustratingly St George’s Hill, playing beautifully, the home team got off to a very good start in both matches. In very quick time the home team had raced to a 6-1 lead in both matches. Clearly time to reset for iPubs, and reset we did. The second sets in both matches were fiercely contested, both going to tie breaks. As polite guests, and not wishing to spoil our manners, the iPubs very generously lost both tie-breaks allowing the home team to take a 2-0 lead in to the second round.
This spring and summer has been exceptionally good weather, so it was very frustrating that throughout the first round of matches, brief periods of drizzle tried to spoil the pleasure of grass court tennis. Sadly no sooner had the first round been completed, the drizzle turned in to full on persistent rain, and effectively ruled out any more chance of grass court tennis for the day.
A few “options” of how to proceed were rapidly discussed, and after an hours rain delay the match resumed, on the green artificial clay. Certaily a first for me. Who has American colored (spelt the American way for authenticity )Artificial clay? Well obviously St George’s, but apart from them? The format also changed to 1 professional set, first to 8 as court bookings were only available until 2pm.
I’d like to report that iPubs fared much better in the second round. Sadly I can’t. In the reverse match Toby & Alex, to use a cricketing parlance, failed to trouble the scorers. However Ross and Miles did cause a few problems for Damian and Carsten. In fact, in a traditional set, they would have walked away with a 6-4 win. But as we all know, it’s not how you start, it’s how you finish, and Damian and Carsten played through to the end winning 8-6.
At a professional level tennis is a results based business. Fortunately in these fixtures, although everyone plays to win, the social aspect of the occasion is also very important. St George’s were exemplary hosts, providing quality opposition, facilities, catering and company. So I’d like to thank them for hosting us so beautifully. Despite coming a comprehensive second, it was a genuinely lovely day. For those members who haven’t played in this fixture or indeed at this club, I can highly recommend that you look out for it next year. iPubs has a string of excellent fixtures, and this is right up there.
Results
Edmeston & Martin lost to Chaudhry and Hutchinson 6-1 7-6
Lost to Rodriguez and Green 8-6
Allen & Rust lost to Rodriguez and Greve 6-1 7-6
Lost to Chaudhry and Hutchinson 8-0
Before I sign off, I’d just like to remind members that in 2011, Newcastle trailed Arsenal 4-0 at half time . Newcastle secured a 4-4 draw. I suspect had we continued playing, a similar spectacular comeback was on its way. However, instead of playing more tennis, we decided eating sandwiches and some beautiful Scones was a much better idea.
Miles Edmeston - Captain