The following matches were played on Saturday 20th July on the porous macadam court 4:-
- 13:00 MS Henry Lloyd-Hughes vs Greg Lim
- 14:00 MD Joseph Rigal & Olly Turner vs Geoff Isaacs & Gideon Stone
- 15:00 LD Moira Duncan & Marjan Denis vs Lesley South & Jane Boyle
After the heatwave conditions during Friday daytime, the grass courts were given a good watering to slake their thirst on Friday evening. Unfortunately then Saturday turned out not to be as warm as expected, and there was an unexpected shower on Saturday. The result was that some of the grass ended up waterlogged, and did not recover in time for the 13:00 start of tournament play on Saturday afternoon. So all three matches were played sequentially on hard court 4 to suit the avid spectators!
In the warm-up singles, Henry Lloyd-Hughes took on the fifth seed Greg Lim.
From seeing the second set, Henry seemed to be playing a very careful game, to avoid unforced errors. Greg is very consistent, and can aim shots with pace. He was always looking to hit with pace to the sidelines to force a shorter ball from Henry. Greg would then hit a strong approach shot to one side or other of the court, come in, and put away the next shot from Henry.
Generally, Greg’s approach worked, and he took the first set 6-2. Henry tried to keep the ball long from his own services, but Greg usually managed to turn to attack in the rally as he warmed up to the task. Greg did throw in a few double faults, but Henry wasn’t able to take advantage. Greg took the match 6-2 6-0.
Having successfully negotiated the first round Geoff Isaacs & Gideon Stone came across the more significant obstacle of Joseph Rigal & Olly Turner, the third seeds. Geoff and Gideon don’t make too many unforced errors, and Geoff can hit with pace and accuracy. Joseph and Olly hit rather harder, and can force errors from opponents, but make occasional bouts of mistakes.
The seeds won the toss, elected to serve, and roared into a 4-0 lead by hitting hot and breaking both the challengers. At this stage Geoff pronounced that his main aim was to avoid the double bagel, which was clearly a possibility.
Geoff and Gideon had a few words about tactics, to try to stem the flow, and broke the seeds immediately. Geoff then professed he was glad to have avoided the double bagel, but I unkindly pointed out that, if semantics allow a 10-0 loss in a match tie break to count as a bagel, Geoff’s strategy ought to be to lose the first set, having now won a game, as winning it would not prevent a double bagel in the subsequent two sets, but losing the first set would. Geoff agreed with the logic, but wasn’t convinced enough to adopt the strategy.
Subsequently, aided by a higher error rate from the seeds, Geoff and Gideon took another 3 of the next 4 games, to get back on serve and leave Geoff serving at 4-5 to save the set.
Geoff’s service game went to a number of deuces. Towards the end of it, the pressure was telling, because he was getting rather fewer first serves in. Eventually he got broken to lose the set, the seeds taking it 6-4.
Buoyed by this critical success, Joseph and Olly proceeded to win all the games in the second set for a 6-4 6-0 victory.
The last of the scheduled matches was a Ladies’ Doubles between Moira Duncan & Marjan Denis and Lesley South & Jane Boyle. Marjan is the hardest hitter and the most mobile of these, though Moira can put lot of pace on the forehand. But Lesley and Jane are tactical experts at placing balls beyond the reach of opponents. Lesley’s angled shots regularly leave opponents standing, and Jane’s lefty slice drop shots are very effective, even if you are expecting them, so they are a very tricky pair to beat. The strategy for Moira and Marjan would have been not to give balls to Lesley and Jane which would enable them to hit such shots, but this is easier said than done.
Moira played well throughout, being especially consistent on the medium height volleys at the net, though Jane was adept at drop shotting her on her short services. Marjan hit with pace and made the occasional errors. For those in the know, a good summary of the opponents from one spectator was that Jane and Lesley were, well, Jane and Lesley!
The first set was very tight, though breaks were traded. No one could gain an enduring advantage, and the set reached 6 games all. In the tie break, Marjan and Moira played well, and took it 7-4.
In the second set, breaks were again traded. Sitting next to me, Bruce Rigal commented that the set had all the hallmarks of going to another tie break. However, having broken their way back to 4 all, Moira and Marjan broke and Marjan held serve for a 7-67-4 6-4 victory.
These pairing definitely take the prize for the best post match photo team racket positions and body stance coordination – and completely unprompted!
Various people did knock up and play social tennis on the grass courts throughout, but they weren’t really playable for tournament matches.
