The Fab 4ths made the long trek to the back of beyond with a strong side,Crewejust behind us in the league. We welcomed Guy back after a long layoff: he had lost none of his skills of persuasion, 'dicky knee etc', so skip let him go 5 (will he ever learn?). Guy faced Phil, whose racket arm was totally tattooed. It did him no good though, as Guy eased into it gently to take the first 9-6, raising the tempo to tattoo Phil for the loss of only two more points. Excellent return Guy!

Geoff at 4 paid for his generosity to Guy, getting a pasting 3-0 off a young whippersnapper Sean. unfair - a youngster who grew up returning lob serves! I blame the warm court. No more messing about - No. 5 (or lower) from now on!

At 3 Ian played Ben and after two games things were not looking good, as Ian struggled to get width on his service returns. But he persevered as his opponent started to make mistakes, and took the third 9-2. The next two games were close but Ian pulled it off for a hard-earned 3-2 win - well played Ian!

Meanwhile on another court Gwyn was playing  Ant, all arms and legs. Don't know what went wrong, but Ant seemed to cut off everything mid-court, leaving Gwyn stranded. 3 points to Gwyn, 3 games to Ant. Ouch! Interesting approach to marking, by the way, Sean asking for opinions from the gallery, which consisted of me and a Vagrant.

So, 2-2 in matches, Tony to win it for us - no pressure! His opponent David should have been docked points for his footwear, but he was no slouch round the court. Tony controlled it in the first to win it 9-6, but then David got motoring with a tricky low fast serve, well tuned to the warm court. Tony battled hard but eventually lost 3-1 - unlucky.

Only 7 points for a lot of sweat, andCreweleapfrog us in the table. Bah Humbug. Merry Christmas everyone!

For the match result Click Here