SO CLOSE BUT SO FAR

7.29 and POPPS are confident of a whitewash victory due to the no show of the opposition who we believe to have heard of our fearsome reputation and decided there was little point in actually playing the game.

7.30 they’ve turned up and its downhill from here on.

9.30 it’s all over and POPPS have slumped and slithered to defeat, the final numbers being a 9 and a 0 which my readers can rearrange in any manner they see fit (or unfit as might be more appropriate.)

David and Peter both managed to throw away winning leads (and collars) with great aplomb due more to a lack of concentration and experience rather than any particular physical defects of which the list is too long to enumerate. Two five set games and three four set ones were lost here. More match practice required for these two mongrels.

Alan played to the best of his ability and better than at our practice sessions but was somewhat out of his class, a kind of family cross breed inadvertently entered at Crufts. Again, more training required here.

However Alan’s analysis of our defeat was spot on…it was clearly due to the noise and the bright shirts sported by players on adjacent tables. I should add that someone whose name shall not be mentioned, but it begins with P, insisted, without due process, that we should move from our normal home table (yes the one where we have gained all those outstanding successes) to a different and totally inferior one where we were unable to utilise our knowledge of the prevailing conditions on our usual home show ring.

So, that’s all for now from your newshound.

KEEP ON PRACTISING