James was up against Terry Hardie in the first set in which he began to find his range. James took the first game 11-8. In the second game James took an early lead of 4-1. However, Terry fought back to lead 10-9  before James scraped home 12-10. The third game James won 12-10. We all agreed that it was prudent to avoid the forehand smashes of Terry.

The second set brought Keith and Chris Webb. The set was won in three straight games, 11-5, 11-4 and 11-8.

The final first round of singles brought Stephen Reader and Chris Webb to the table. Stephen went 0-2 down only to win the next 6 points to lead 6-2 in which he played three great forehand smashes. He took the first game 11-6. In the second game the score reached 8-10 with Chris leading. Stephen served, winning the point and for some reason the scorer Terry called 10-9 and the serve was switched to Chris. WHY? Chris took the second to level up. Chris stepped up the pressure getting almost everything back to win games 3 and 4. Stephen acquitted himself well and was positive and attacking throughout.

The second round of singles saw Ray Webb facing James. James started in determinate fashion taking the first game 11-3. James was finding his range as he took both the second and third games.

Next was Stephen refreshed from his holiday in Cairo was now up against Terry Hardie. Stephen was playing his best table tennis of the season and using his forehand smash to great effect. Stephen was encouraged to keep away from the forehand of Terry. Stephen took the first game 14-12. Terry hit back to level in the second game12-10. However, in game three with some great combinations of backhand service and forehand smash, Stephen took the game 11-7. Terry with his experience levelled the set. In a tight fifth Stephen could not quite manage to regain the momentum of game 3 and Terry took the set 11-8. A great performance by Stephen and very heartening.

Next up was Keith and Chris. Keith played well in the first two games taking the first
11-4 and just missed out on the second 11-13. Chris having levelled up took control winning the next two games 11-4 and 11-7.

The doubles saw Cris and James face the Webb brothers. As in the doubles at home, both Cris and James making too many mistakes to gift the first game. The second and third games were much tighter as the Webb brothers won 11-9 and 14-12. The Sonning pair were very disappointed with that result.

The final round of singles brought first Stephen up against Ray. Throughout the evening Ray had been the more aggressive of the brothers but it was Ray who was retreating from the table as Stephen took the set to Ray. Stephen was playing with freedom and confidence. Ray took the first two games but in the third Stephen played no less than 5 forehand smashes to get one game back. Again Stephen could not quite regain the momentum as Ray took the set 11-6 in the fourth game.

James then faced Chris and this was another reasonable straightforward win in four games. So a well earned treble for James and retaining his position at the top of the averages.

Last up was Keith and Terry. Terry took a two game lead before Keith took the third. With Keith tiring, Terry took the set in game four.

Tonight I felt again we were close to winning at least one more set and as said the doubles defeat was disappointing. More annoying was the M4 being closed on the way home!

Thanks to those that read this.

by Cris Reynolds