by I played interclub again last Saturday. We had a bit of a shocker in the doubles. My partner was a nice bloke but we’d never played together before. Our opponents clearly had, and they were simply better doubles players than the pairing we faced the previous time. There were very few of the ten-plus-shot rallies that I do reasonably well in; I guess it was, unfortunately, proper doubles. We were competitive in the latter stages of the first set which we lost 6-3, but got wiped out 6-0 in the second. We went oh-for-three (pardon my American) on sudden-death points. In one game on my serve in the second set, we lost the first three points, then won the next four, only to lose the last two. I double-faulted three times in that game in the swirling wind, including on the sudden-death final point.
My singles opponent (who we faced in the doubles match) was left-handed like me. This is usually bad news. He had a look of confidence about him as he stepped onto the court. I’m not sure I even got his serve back in the first game and I didn’t hold out much hope for the rest of the match. Remarkably I only lost one more game all match, in the middle of the second set when he hit four winning drop shots. I never imagined I’d win 6-1 6-1, and neither did he nor the handful of people watching. He came to the net too often; I was able to pass him and occasionally lob him. I respected his game though and kept my foot on the gas until the end.
My doubles partner lost his singles in three sets after winning the first set on a tie-break. He took a very long break after the first set for no apparent reason. I told him after the match that he should have got on with it; when you win the first set on a tie-break you have a ton of momentum and you need to make the most of it.
As a team we drew 3-3 but won 7-6 in sets. There was another interclub battle going on at the same time as ours, involving a 77-year-old bloke who was on the away team. Sometimes you’ll see that in the doubles-only grades, but in singles, wow.
