With Chris and I both breaking strings during the warm-up, our less-than-ideal preparation for this home game resulted in a merry-go-round in racket swapping, with Chris using one of mine, and then me needing to borrow from Roger.
To add to the mix, it looked at one stage like Dom might have been playing singles, but luckily Andrew 'turns up when he likes' Skitch just about made it back from Norwich in time to race away and smash the first set 8v1.
This would be the first win of many, with our Sax pairs going on to get the clean sweep and win by a mighty 9v0. But it wasn’t easy: Holbrook brought a strong trio of pairs, and two games went to the wire at 9v7 and 8v6.
The moment of the night goes to Roger for a collector’s item charge to the net! I’m still not sure who was more shocked, Roger, the opposition or myself!
Either way, it led to a beautifully placed volley winner, to put them in control during a tight set that would go all the way, with Ewan serving out the set decisively.
This was a fantastic result, especially considering it was a night without the wily Fox. This was the first game James has missed for the team since 2015 (that was a home 6v3 defeat to St Johns, in what will forever live in the memory as the 'Ball Boy' incident – ask me for details).
The Men’s 1st team’s next appearance will be the return leg against Holbrook, where you can guarantee we’ll be gunning for four wins out of four.
Now, I’m just off to check my strings…
