Jarrolds home Friday 15 JulyFriday 15th August

Friday 15th August

City League Division 4

Jarrolds home

So the season end approaches and we faced a vital match at home to Jarrolds. Stanmore’s shock win against Wymondham had changed everything, both Jarrolds and ourselves thought we were safe, but now both teams needed a win, it was a real four pointer, we had a slight advantage, as we still had to travel to Taverham. It was a night literally of blood sweat and tears.

Mary and I made a scrappy start. I was in no form at all and dropped serve. 2-0 and Mary held and we broke to level. We fell behind in the next round to trail 5-3. It was a good tense battle and our opponents pulled away to lead 9-3. This soon became 10-3, but we fought back as our opponents lost concentration and we won the next 3 games to lose 10-6.

Next door, Nick and Peter raced into a 4-0 lead and looked set for a big win. Our experienced opponents had other ideas and started to fight back. We lead 7-2 but the visitors had the upper hand. Our pair somehow hung on for a 9-7 win. We trailed by 2 at the break.

Mary and I made another tight start and were 2-2. Once again our opponents edged in front for 5-3. Next door Nick and Pete had raced into a 7-1 lead. We slipped behind yet again, but our top pair were holding their advantage. It would all go down to the last 4 games. Nick and Peter were in majestic form racing home 12-4 against dispirited opponents. We were starting a fight back. Some long and desperate rallies saw us claw back our opponents lead. We were almost there when Nick suffered a nasty fall, ending up on our court. After a delay, play resumed and we put together a string of games to go down 10-6.

We had won 33-31, safety is almost ours, a point next week at bottom club Taverham will seal our place. Jarrolds need a win at Brooke to send Stanmore down. We’re nearly there.