Club Competition

Horsham Teams Extend Their Season at Greenway

Reports by organiser Alan Shipley

Thursday 3rd March

The third and final round took place on 03/03. F beat H team 8-2 but this was not a true reflection of the match. 7 of the games went to 5 sets and only Barry Cheer’s defeat of Bob Rhodes failed to make the 4^th set.  Mark Weston won all three for F and Piers Van-Mol picked up 2 for  H. Therefore, Alan Shipley & Barry won 2 each & James Arnold & Bob won none.

Bob was 10-8 up against Mark in the final set but Mark managed to claw back. The best turnabout though was by Piers playing against Alan. Piers lost the first 13 points but battled back to win 11-8 in the fifth. His smile was very broad at the end of that one! James battled hard but in the end his inexperience (and not very generous handicap!) went against him. He showed great temperament in winning the first set 17-15 against Alan.

In the other game G beat I 7-3. Matt Van Yperen won all 3 with Colin Holmwood and James Van Yperen taking 2 each. In reply Graeme Selwyn and Liam Cuffe won 1 each. Graham and Colin were involved in a titanic struggle which Graeme edged 14-12 in the fifth. The second set was won 18-16 by Colin who has enjoyed his matches back in the sport. Eve Alexander battled hard but was edged out by Colin 11-9 in the fifth.

Overall the 3 games were thoroughly enjoyed by all who participated and thanks to Rory for all his help.

Thursday 24th February

The second round was played on 24/2. 2 games again although the H team only had 3 players. Bob Rhodes was waiting for Piers Van-Mol to pick him up from his house as planned, but Piers was not playing & forgot to tell Bob, so Bob waited an hour and a half before deciding Piers wasn’t coming!

In I (Davide Brini, Liam Cuffe & Graeme Selwyn) v H the youth of Freddy Goodall and James Arnold held their senior opponents to a 5-5 draw. Freddy was the star with 3 wins, with Liam winning one for I, meaning 2 wins for James & none for Davide or Graeme. The doubles win for I clawed a defeat back to a draw. Not surprising as James & Freddy have basically never played doubles before.

F (Alan Shipley, Mark Weston & Martin Hoad) beat G (Barry Cheer, Matt Van Yperen & Colin Holmwood) 8-2 although this did not reflect the closeness of the match. Barry was in fine form for G winning two matches in 5 although losing to undefeated Alan in the fifth. Barry pulled back from 2-0 down to beat Martin Hoad. Barry and Matt were 2 sets up in the doubles but allowed Alan and Mark to level at 2-2. Barry and Matt were 10-6 up in the final set but were caught on the line by Alan and Mark. So two apiece for Mark & Martin, but Matt and Colin were unlucky not to win a game.

Thursday 17th February

As K1 season finished in early winter I decided to hold a club competition on a handicap basis. This went well the first week although I will have to tweak a couple of the handicaps.

Two matches were played. F team represented by Mark Weston, Martin Hoad and Erik Van Mol. They were up against I team – Eve Alexander, Graeme Selwyn and Davide Brini. Davide was the star of the show winning all of his games as well as the doubles with Graeme. Eve was unlucky to lose 3 very close matches. 4 of the games went to 5 sets and another 4 went to 4. A good close match ended 6-6 to F team.

In the other game G (Matt Van Yperen, Alan Shipley and Colin Holmwood) played H (James Arnold, Piers Van Mol and Bob Rhodes) and squeezed in 6-4. Colin is making a return to the sport after 17 years absence. After a sluggish start he excelled in the doubles and also won 2 singles. James also won two including against a lethargic (he had just walked 8.5 miles!) Alan. James just does not give up.

An enjoyable evening for all.