For POPPs B first match of the Summer League season they faced up to Spartans, a division 2 team in the normal season. Their full team did not turn up so Steve Hanson and Rod Veal were joined by Joe Broadbent from the Rams team. The POPPs B contingent was made up of two new members, Tom Sunderland and Alwyn Kershaw, and regular B team player Terry Wassall who acted as captain for the night.

As expected, it turned out to be a tough night for POPPs. Tom started proceedings by taking on Steve and lost in 3 games, 9 -11, 5-11, 3-11. Steve countered Tom’s  patient pushes by pushing back so some fairly long rallies ensued. Every now and then one or the other would sense an opportunity to attack and play a more aggressive shot, Steve getting a higher percentage on the table and generally looking more comfortable in attack than Tom. Alwyn then took on Joe and got off to a steady start by losing the first game 7-11. However, his accuracy and consistency improved in the second to take it 11-5 aided by a fair number of ambitious backhand smashes from Joe that rarely connected with the table. Joe steadied down in the 3rd game and played more conservatively but Alwyn’s game continued to improve taking the game to 10 all but unfortunately just couldn’t press home his advantage to win it, losing 10-12. Joe then won the 4th fairly easily 5-11 to take the set 3 games to 1. Terry then played Rod to complete the first 3 sets winning 3 games to nil, 11-1, 11-8 and 11-7. Terry was always fairly comfortable and was probably helped by the fact that Rod was playing with a new set of rubbers and was still getting used to them. Apparently he had to change them as the previous rubbers were declared illegal by having the wrong sorts of pimples. I’m amazed that the Pimple Police spotted this but no doubt some ultra-competitive barrack room lawyer spotted them, measured them with a micrometer and found them to be a nanothingy too long (or short, or wide or simply unseemly in some respect). 

This was to prove POPP’s only win of the evening. Alwyn lost to Steve in 3 straight games who was playing better as the night progressed. Tom lost to Rod in 3 games despite keeping in touch for the first 2 games and taking the 3rd game to 10 all. This turned out to be an excellent game with some remarkable rallies mixing attack with defense and the momentum swinging either way. Rod took the game 14-12 and the set 3 games to 1. Terry’s match against Joe was swiftly and efficiently lost 3 games to nil. The first 2 games looked as if he had a chance getting to 8 all and 9 all in each but this was thanks to some ambitious attacking shots that caught Joe by surprise on a number of occasions. However, Joe had the trickiest serve of the night and produced a bamboozeler whenever he was in a bit of a tight corner and went on to win both games without conceding another point. The third game was a formality as Terry became even more ambitious, flailing out in all directions. This tactic certainly produced the most spectacular winning shots of the evenings. However, after each spectacular winner, 2 or 3 further points had already been lost even before the applause had died. Joe took the game 11-5 and the set 3 games to nil.

The last 3 sets continued the pattern. Alwyn lost to Rod in 3 straight games despite leading in all three. On each occasion Rod dug in and just got everything back until Alwyn made a mistake. The last game went to 10 all with Rod running out the winner 14-12. Terry then took on Steve, again losing in 3 straight games. The second game was very competitive with neither player making a conclusive break. The game was level pegging all the way up to 15 all when Steve took the final points to win 17-15. Finally Tom played Joe who won in straight games.

In many ways this was a satisfactory evening. The match was played in good spirits and we had quite a few laughs. This is primarily what the Summer League is all about. We all acquitted ourselves reasonably well against better and more experienced opposition. Tom and Alwyn both improved aspects of their play throughout their games and with a little more experience and confidence will be converting more of their close games into wins rather than near misses. We all need to learn that patience and playing within our limits is probably the secret to success at our level. This is a lesson I have not learnt over 2 seasons so far and probably never will.