SMITHS WOOD BRIBAR A 8, COLEBRIDGE B 2 – Match report by Neil Wheatley.
The visit to the Smiths Wood hothouse last night and a meeting with the favourites for the title was not expected to earn our B team any points, but although losing 8-2, they did put up a good fight.
The home team’s Helen Turner’s steady attacking play earned her 3 easy wins, a score matched by team mate Alan Caffery, although with more difficulty, as he was frequently forced to defend with high lobs and required 4 games to beat Mike Credland and Jamie Fellows and 5 to beat Neil Wheatley.
Youngster, Jack Styring, making a welcome return to the sport after premature retirement, showed that he has not lost his attacking flair in comfortably seeing off Mike and Jamie, but he found Neil’s crafty mix of attack and defence, behind some quality serving, a bit too much to handle and lost narrowly in 5. It was a similar story in the doubles with Neil and Mike easy 3-0 winners over the Caffery/Styring duo.