Popps B entertained (in more than one sense of the word) Embassy in their latest match. The venerable Popps trio of old hands (attached to equally old bodies), Terry, Alwyn and Tom, faced up to their formidable and slightly nicotine stained opponents, Hugh, Clive and Tom. Clive played all three of his sets at the beginning of the match as he had to get home to do some on-line A level marking before a midnight deadline.  He was undoubtedly the best of the Embassy trio and dispatched the entire Popps team in short order, playing with one hand on his hip and  just poking the ball back with ease. Both Alwyn and Terry lost in 3 straight games. Tom managed to take the 3rd game before losing patience in the face of Clive’s relentless defence and going down 3 games to 1. Having taken about 30 minutes to smoke the Popps team  Clive took an early departure to return home to his A level marking no doubt to spread more despair and despondency amongst his A level students.

We didn’t fair much better against Hugh who also won all 3 of his sets. Alwyn managed to take the 3rd game 11-8 but Hugh ran out a comfortable winner taking the next game and winning the set 3 – 1. Terry showed some signs of improvement as he gradually got back into his game after a 3 week lay-off but had no answer to Hugh’s consistent defensive returning sprinkled with the occasional effective back hand drive. Terry did manage at least to show remarkable consistency in losing 5-11, 5-11, 5-11. Not to be outdone Tom then lost to Hugh  4-11, 4-11, 4-11.  Good to see the competitive spirit is alive and well within the Popps team.

Sam was our only hope of winning a set or two. He was definitely Embassy’s No. 3 (extra mild and tipped you may remember) but still no slouch. Alwyn did manage to win his set against Sam in 5 games, 11-9, 9-11, 11-8, 7-11 and 11-7. Sam had some excellent attacking shots, both forehand and backhand, but lacked the patience and consistency of his team mates. In both the games Sam won he was behind 8 -10 but managed to drag himself into the lead at the fag end of the games to win them, so he could have lost 0-3 with less determination. Alwyn played carefully and accurately using his attacking shots sparingly and won mainly by eliciting errors from Sam and the occasional satisfying smash. This was the best set of the evening. It turned out to be our only success. Both Tom and Terry, who not doubt should be sponsored by Disney, lost to Sam in 3 straight games. The fact that Sam seemed to be wearing a sailor outfit similar to that worn by Donald Duck’s nephews only added to the feeling of being in cartoon. Terry continued to improve and perhaps was a little unlucky not to win a game  losing 13-15, 11-13 and 9-11.

As usual the match was played in good humour with a fair bit of Mickey taking and laughter. It would be nice to have a bit more success than we are but it is all useful experience and jolly good fun too.