River Park put a brake on the Hampshire Club juggernaut
River Park drew with Hampshire Club ‘A’ 4-4
River Park kept the league interesting by forcing a draw at the Hampshire Club against their first team, which featured current Hants singles champion Peter Francis. But River Park had their own ace up their sleeve, with returning Oz backpacker Ed Batson.
Ed and Janine played at first pair, taking on Peter Francis and a young county girl. It was an absorbing encounter, which saw Ed and Janine go a break down in the third but then come roaring back to take a famous victory.
In an already legendary game, Pete Francis directed every serve to Ed’s backhand and lost about 12 points in a row as a result. When Ed and Janine finally got to breakpoint the watching Oz said “Ed’s won them all when they’ve been down, now can he do it again to break?” Of course he could as the bewilderingly stubborn Francis hit yet another serve to Ed’s backhand and got it drilled into his feet.
Simon and Sarah could not get a result at two, having gamely played up the order a bit. After a fairly disasterous first set they played a lot better in the second, breaking serve to stay in the match and take the set to 5-5. But it was to no avail as the next two games slipped away.
Rob and Kirsty, dropping down to third pair as our banker, did not disappoint. In tropical conditions on the indoor court they came through another epic to bag a three set victory. Rob was having to wring his shirt out at each change of ends and ask ‘fresh as a daisy’ Kirsty to towel him down at regular intervals. But the sweaty magician pulled it out of his hat for River Park once again - an excellent win.
Jamie and Emma went down against tough opposition at four, so it was all even at 2-2 after the mixed thanks to those two hard-fought wins.
Ed and Simon teamed up again for the first time in a long while to take on the Hants Club firsts. Shrugging off 3 months without hitting a ball Ed proceeded to dominate the court against this high calibre opposition. Having played an immaculate match he stepped up to serve for the match at 6-4 5-4, and promptly dropped serve for the first time all day. The second set went on to a tie-break but Ed and Simon romped through it to seal a perfect return to the River Park team for Ed. He looked fully deserving of a Hampshire County team call-up on this peformance!
Rob and Jamie, who we’d have bet the River Park clubhouse on, came unstuck against a very solid second pair. And the top Hants ladies beat our talented pairing of Janine and Kirsty. So despite some excellent wins we could have still come unstuck, but no!
Sarah and Emma played a blinder in the second women’s dubs to get the crucial fourth rubber for us and force a draw.
This was a quality result against a Hampshire Club team who are after the title and were banking on a win against us today. It keeps River Park firmly up amongst the top three spots, although the title looks unlikely this year.
We enjoyed a nice tea, perhaps a little too much as we realised after a while that most of the Hants Club team seemed to have gone and left us to it! Taking the hint we got on our way, with some of us making it out later to Froggie’s Bar to reflect on some cracking tennis and guzzle a bit of champagne (kindly bought by Rob for Simon’s birthday).
