Eagles vs Watling 'A' 1st Division - 9th December

The Eagles merrily continued their way away from the dreaded second spot in division one and unwanted promotion to the 'Big Guns' with an unconvincing 3- 5 defeat to an eminently beatable Watling team. Current form certainly suggests relegation for the Eagles is a certainty.
 
In the first first game James Banfield inspired by a pre match tactics team talk by father Banfield brushed aside a possibly distracted David Solaway who oddly seemed to think that defeat against mighty James was inevitable. Next Ian Banfield lost the first set against the unconventional all backhand game of Graham Spooner by an unbelievable 4-11. Ian deciding that it wasn't worth the effort  decided to do nothing and yet won the next three sets!
 
Next Brian Clark continued his highly unlikely and stylish losing streak by flittering away a match winning fourth set against A. Meisel ( dont know what the A stands for ) who composed himself to take the deciding fifth set. Next was the match that everybody wanted to see..Ian against David. Always a close, big hitting exciting affair that goes to deuce in the fifth with Ian somehow always winning. And it didn't disappoint in that  Ian thrashed David easier than a score of 15 - 13 in the fifth would suggest.
 
At 2-2 and with Ian sulking in the abyss of a depression over an unimportant disputed edge in the previous set,  Ian started by serving  the first point off the table. Defeat for Ian seemed inevitable but with some magnifcent shots with no spin or speed, fast or slow, Ian continued a very unimpressive winning streak by taking victory from  a very sporting David.

What did disappoint the crowd of one spectator was that David deciding he couldn't out hit Ian tried to out push him. Ian  merely did the same and so the usual big hitting contest never materialised.
3-1 to the Eagles. At this point Ian unwisely gave his team a xmas drink of 80% Hungarian something  unpronounceable. Next three sets easily won by Watling. 4-3 to Watling
 
James and Brian nearly got it together to snatch a draw in a good doubles contest. the first two sets were lost 9-11 and 10-12 and could perhaps have been won. the next two were won to 8 and 4 to make it 2-2.
After another inspiring team talk  by Ian before the deciding fifth set which was totally ignored, James hit several shots onto the third table along and never recovered to lose 2-11 !!
 
match won by Watling 5-3

Match report by : Ian Banfield

Comments

[Dave Soloway]

"an unimportant disputed edge in the previous set"
Get your eyes checked, everyone else saw AND heard it!! :-)

[ian]

Is this comment in the same spirit as the match report? ie.light hearted. Or are you being serious coz I WAS NEAREST AND THERE WAS NOTHING TO BE HEARD OR SEEN! SO THERE!

For any neutral reading this....James the umpire has stated under oath that he could not award me the point for fear of seeming to be biased!!
ps i know its in fun really. i just wanna add some controversy to the site

[Dave Soloway]

fight fight fight!