River Park firsts cruise through opening three fixtures
River Park beat Hampshire Club B 5-3
River Park beat Riverside 6-2
River Park beat South Hants 6-2
The title-winning River Park first team are off to another flyer this year, winning their opening three matches and gaining new fans wherever they play.
The ever-changing squad has been struck by the absence of its male and female number ones. “Boom Boom” Ed is finding himself amongst the barbeques and Sheilas of Australia. “Big Emma” is just back from US college tennis but River Park have to fight with her employer, a purveyor of fine ales and wines, for her talents on a Saturday afternoon.
Some meagre compensation has been found in the return of renowned loopy topspinner Simon, freshly back from cruising fjords and gawping at penguins in New Zealand. His speciality of bouncing shots over the heads of smaller opponents could be essential on the lively River Park tarmac.
The opening fixture was against our old fiends at Hampshire Club - their B team. It would have been a serious blow to start the season with a loss, and we had no idea who the Hamsphire Club might put out to face us. Nerves were settled though as River Park stole the advantage in the mixed, moving 3-1 ahead. We moved across the finishing line with wins in the two mens doubles to take a 5-3 win. Player of the day was Tessa who came in at late notice, having not played for a year, to win a crucial mixed with Oz!
The next match was Riverside. Simon turned up a little late, not realising a trip to Salisbury was in the offing (thought this was a Hampshire league?). Paul’s carefully printed out directions, taking us via an idyllic tour of the south coast, were discarded and we set off on a madcap dash along a more direct route through charming countryside. Somehow we made it there only 15 minutes late, with some good improvised map reading around Salisbury and only a brief delay as we missed the big sign for the tennis club and drove a mile or two past it.
Riverside turned out to be a slighly misleading club name. ‘Windy Hilltop’ would have captured the essence of the place better. But River Park dug in to take a 3-1 lead in the mixed. Rob and Kirsty’s slaughter of the opposing firsts was particularly noteworthy. Simon and ‘little Emma’ were out there for a couple of hours longer but got there in the end with a hard-fought three set win after dropping the first. Debut player Janine, an old friend of Kirsty’s, made an excellent start winning in three sets with Jamie at three.
River Park then took the two men’s doubles and the women’s top doubles to secure a 6-2 win overall. Oz, who was threatening to retire if he lost his second rubber that day, fortunately pulled through with Jamie in three sets to stop the league losing one of its most charismatic stars.
The third match was home to South Hants A - local rivals who boast boast the sort of bobbly grass courts you either love (Rob, Miranda) or hate (Simon, a lot).
River Park handed a debut to a talented young Frenchman, sourced from an Oz watering-hole, named Kevin. Yes apparently there are Frenchmen called Kevin. Bafflingly to we English he had mostly played an odd variant of tennis called ‘singles’. But he was willing to chance his arm at real 4 player tennis for the River Park cause.
Simon and Miranda had a thriller against the South African husband and wife first pair but ultimately couldn’t compete with this match made in Heaven and went down 7-5 in the third. But all our other mixed pairs pulled through to give us another 3-1 lead at the halfway point.
Simon and, le forehand, Kevin won the first mens while Jamie and Rob won comfortably at two. Rob’s masterplan came off as Kirsty and Janine won the second women’s doubles to give River Park a 6-2 win.
Despite his fine form Rob pleaded with us after the match to ‘drop the dead Conkie’ for the next game. But not even the mighty River Park can allow a player of his talents to step down and focus on his chocolate cakes.
Simon became somewhat fascinated with the latest innovation at River Park, video footage of the matches. He eventually had to be dragged away from repeats of one of his rare interceptions.
There’s some tough matches ahead but River Park have showed their intent, and Ed and “Big Emma” may yet be back in the team for some of them. Most importantly of all, Oz is not retiring!
