Our last game of the season and we needed a win to be sure of our place in the final. The game was rained off on Saturday but we got a sunny, through breezy, day on the Sunday to finish the season. We were just a few yards away from Andy's house and he came down with Alex to offer some welcome support. Our glamorous Interclub 1 women't team also showed up so we had a rare little crowd behind us.
Kris and I got the ball rolling with a 6-4 6-1 win against Olly Sadler and Matt Nichols, meaning we'd gone unbeaten as a pair through the league. Richard and Chris extended our lead with a good 6-3 6-4 win against Cameron Steel and Jonathan Wilson.
I played young Olly Sadler in my singles and, similarly to my game with Mitchell, spent the first half of the match getting a tennis education from someone less than half my age. I was 6-3 5-2 down but put in one last big effort to keep defeat at bay and got back to 5-4. We'd had one particularly long rally where Olly took a tumble at the end, and from that point on he didn't seem quite right. I managed to get the second set 7-5 and then Olly seemed to have very little left to give in the third, going down 6-1. So I'm made it through the league unbeaten in my singles, mostly thanks to my modest gym routine as I struggled to compete shot for shot with some of my younger opponents.
Kris put in another quality performance to take out the improving Cameron Steel 6-2 7-6. Richard took an early lead against Matt Nichols but Matt came back to take it 7-5 6-2. Richard swore that he would be using new balls for all his matches in future, even if he had to supply them himself, as he was fed up with getting sucked into long rallies with old balls! Brian played Jonathan Wilson, who was almost a mirror image of Brian with a big spinny serve and forehand. Brian played some great stuff but got edged out 7-5 6-4.
It's been very noticeable that Premier 2 teams have more depth than Premier 3 and generally field quality players right down the order. Richard, Brian and Chris 'Epic' Patete have faced tough opposition at 3 and 4 throughout the season but scored a lot of crucial points for us.
So we took this match 4-2, which guaranteed us the second spot in the league and a rematch with Wellington in the final.
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