Driffield League Week 2

Another week of great weather for all three nights of our Driffield League fixtures. Read below for all our scores and some match reports too!

Mixed

Pocklington B 2-7 Market Weighton A

Market Weighton B 7-2 Hutton Cranswick

Market Weighton C 9-0 Flamborough

Market Weighton D: Bye week

Ladies

Cherry Burton 2-7 Market Weighton A

Market Weighton B 4-5 Driffield Rec A

Hackness & Scarborough B 4-5 Market Weighton C

Market Weighton D 6-3 Driffield Rec C

Men’s

Cherry Burton 3-6 Market Weighton A

Market Weighton B 2-7 Driffield LTC A

Driffield LTC B 8-1 Market Weighton C

Match Reports:

Men’s A (written by Tom Bowman, captain):

A nice warm evening with little wind set the scene for lots of long and intense rallies on the slow, high bouncing hard courts at Cherry Burton tonight.

We started off with Jack & Robbo playing their first pair, Tom & Jan playing their second pair and Dave & Laurence playing their third pair. Jack & Robbo finished first, losing out 8-1 to a very strong first pair that Cherry had (a tough combo of a big server and a partner with great touch at the net). Tom & Jan finished next, beating their second pair 8-2 (a scoreline which slightly flattered us). All eyes were onto Dave & Laurence, and without any of us knowing the score we were delighted to see a handshake after a winning point. 8-3 to Laurence & Dave, 2-1 to MW.

We knew going into the second round of rubbers the fixture would be decided here as it was (on paper at least) 1st pair vs 1st pair, 2nd pair vs 2nd pair and 3rd pair vs 3rd pair. Robbo was on top form again, using a list of tricks from his book to break them down and earn a dominant 8-2 victory. Tom & Jan played a solid game of tennis against their first pair, taking the lead straight away and eventually going on to an 8-2 victory (although if the first set slightly flattered us, this score really flattered us). 

Then to, by far, the best match of the night. Laurence and Dave against their second pairing. Laurence was absolutely fantastic, ripping returns, soft hands at the net and even bucking the “Lewis Smash” we’ve come to know and putting smashes away! A hard fought victory, winning 9-7 in a tiebreak which secured the match result going into the last set of rubbers.

Unfortunately one of the Cherry Burton players had injured their calf earlier on in the night and conceded the match against Jan and myself. 

Everyone could relax going into the third round (Jan really relaxed heading down to the pub early) and by the time Robbo and Jack lost in a close tiebreak Jan had already had a three course meal in the pub. Dave and Laurence put up a great fight against their first pairing losing 8-4 in a game that could have easily taken a different path. 

Overall a 6-3, 61-40 victory. A solid victory against a fun and friendly team which are usually near the top end of the table.

2/2 so far and a home match against Bridlington next Thursday to look forward to. Well played everyone!

Men’s B (written by Matt Taylor, captain):

Game week 2 came round very quickly and the sun continued to shine. We welcomed a reshuffled Driffeld team for our first home match of the season. 

We had a good idea it was going to be a tough night following on from last week’s results. This was only strengthened with Aleds opening words ‘oh sugar he is a really good player’ turned out he was! 

Cam and Aled started against the best pairing and played some good tennis , managing to take 4 games. Cam was delighted to ace the really good player and told anyone who would listen. Ian and Lee found themselves locked in a gruelling match taking it to 7-7. They found themselves trailing 6-3 in the tie break and with a Pocklington esk line call from Ian they managed to take the lead 7-6 unfortunately the pressure was to much for Lee and they lost the next 3 points. 

When I first started playing for the B team a few years ago I found myself partnered with Steve and it was a real pleasure to have him back playing tonight. The games might not have gone our way, but the tennis was competitive and enjoyable. In the first round we quickly found ourselves 5-0 down we manged to get in to the game as the match went on and finished losing 8-4. 

Happy to be ahead of the total games Rudston lost to last week our next challenge was to get a game on the board. Lee and Ian faced up against the best player and but no matter what they tried it was unsuccessful losing 8-1. Myself and Steve struggled to get in the second game and with alot of drop shots soon found ourselves losing 8-1. Thankfully Aled and Cam stepped up playing some fantastic tennis winning 8-5. 

We moved in to the last round with only pride to play for, with Lees advice ringing in my ears ‘don’t hit the ball to either of them’ myself and Steve started our last match unsuccessful losing 8-0 we had the pleasure of watching the last matches finish. Lee and Ian battled well but came away 8-5 down. 

With Aled amd Cam finishing on centre court and Cam having his full fan club in attendance they put on a bit of a show winning 8-3.

Thoroughly enjoyable evening even if the result did not go our way finishing the evening losing 7-2. We go again next week away vs Bridlington and following the stories from the pub it’s bound to be an entertaining evening!