17/01/2023
On a treacherous, icy night, it wasn't me on my bike sliding out, it was the 2nd team sliding to a(nother) big win, at the expense of Grange 3 this week. Digging in from Kim, Rod and Stephen gave us Jonathans an easier time of it, last on. They really were gritty performances, using all their nous, shotmaking and ball placement to freeze out their opponents.
Kim, coming back from a long injury time out, hit lethal cross-court, low, short kills which I'm jealous of and need her to teach me. Trickle boasts were working a treat and you really wouldn't have thought she wasn't at full fitness. 17-15 to win 3-0 took mental strength at the end.
Rod is known for thinking his way to winning a match and doesn't like his concentration broken by chatting on the balcony, which is probably why he started winning after I went to get changed. The wiley fox turned his match around and showed the younger leftie what an experienced leftie can do. It's not often you get two lefties in a match. My guess is it took his old bones a game to warm up!
Stephen probably thought he was on a similar trajectory after going 1-0 up but his opponent had other ideas. He must have run out of ideas because Stephen turned on the heat like the newish heater down by the glassbacks to win the next 2 15-6 15-9.
Us Jonathans? Nimmo ran around the court like a gazelle we've never seen before, although may have mutated into a stomping elephant if he hadn't won in 3, so infamous he is for running out of puff. A comfortable win for the gazelle-like boast master. If you know, you know.
My opponent pulled off some fantastic high backhand return of serve straight volley drops and several drop shots from all across the length of the court, which with my limited movement I had no hope of retrieving, but ultimately the pressure told. Loose balls gave me the opportunities I needed to play my dinky drops and volley lengths, planting my feet firmly on the T, with a stretch to the left and a stretch to the right. Thankfully I wasn't forced to move off the T more than 13 times in any game.
Pies and beans and chocolate mini-rolls were duly polished off and no accidents on the icy roads on the way home made it a successful night all round.
