Army vs T&RA
- Boulter and Norman v O’Dwyer and Wilson 3/6 6/1 2/4 Draw
- Landau and Danby v KP and Aitken 12/10 T&RA win
- Read-Felstead and Akerman v Parker and Atkins 8/10 AT&RA win
- Park-Weir and O’Dwyer v Wright and Norman 11/11 Draw
- Read-Felstead and de Halpert v Atkins and Aitken 7/13 T&RA win
- Boulter and Park-Weir v Speed and Summers 10-17 AT&RA win
- Boulter and Read-Felstead v Speed and Akerman 9-7 T&RA win
AT&RA win 3-2
There was some debate over who might have won the 1st and 4th matches given that the games were tied. It was suggested that we use the handicaps to decide but we eventually went for honours even.
It was particularly good to see Emily Summers and Chris Atkins. Two reasons for this; firstly they lowered the average age and secondly Emily had a car accident recently and was recovering from a broken foot. Chris was particularly handy on the court and some of his shots were in danger of damaging some of the less nimble players given their velocity.
Alex Wilson returned to the game after many years absence. A spell at East Midlands OTC and a year in Afghanistan have seen him geographically isolated from the game. His partner Michael O’Dwyer reported that actually he did ‘quite well’ for his first time back on court. Now that he is at the MOD we hope to see more of him.
Paul Danby and Mark Landau were once more paired up and were looking to get some practice in before the Championships in Feb. They obviously are firing on all cylinders as they defeated the talented pairing of KP and Aitken. KP may have been focussed on his 0230 hours start on the Monday morning as the Officer Cadets in the Intermediate term at Royal Military Academy Sandhurst were off on EX FIRST ENCOUNTER (WORST ENCOUNTER). This is their first exposure to digging in. As I type I imagine that he is approaching stage 3!
As ever it was a joy to see Iain Park-Weir. He kept us entertained with tales from years hence and connected well with the ball.
David Read-Felstead and Simon de Halpert had an excellent game against Chris Atkins and Barry Aitken. I saw some very good shots as I enjoyed a fine Queen’s lasagne and some very good wine kindly donated by the T&RA.
The final match turned out to be a very close encounter. The parings were randomly thrown together from those who felt another hour was what they needed. Speed and Boulter did their best to compromise Read-Felstead and Akerman’s fine play. But despite their best efforts it was a tightly fought contest being decided in the last five