Good win against Oxford Rackets for weakened 2nd team

In a week with several players missing, the second team fared best. More below…

With two regular first team players missing, Henley 1sts visited Oxford Brookes this week, resulting in a 4/1 (18/5) loss. With everyone promoted at least one position this was always going to be a tough match, against opponents Henley would otherwise expect to beat.

At first string Simon Street started well against Nelson Fung. In a long and competitive first game Fung had the edge, but then ran away with the next two games to win 3/0.

At two, Stefan Stanton also started well against Jason Varrie and narrowly lost the first game 10/9. Stanton levelled the match by winning the second game but Varrie upped the pressure to take the next two games for a 3/1 win.

Henley’s latest recruit Dan Jones won the first game against Robin Sparkes fairly comfortably. From the start of the second game Sparkes used his better reach to good advantage and volleyed well though, winning 3/1.

At fourth string Ed Hopkins played well but lost 3/0 to Hao-Sum Yuan. On an extremely hot night, Hopkins effort was obvious by the shade of his face as he glowed!

Andy Walters managed Henley’s only win with a 3/2 victory against Simon Pick at 5th string. Walters showed better composure at the end of the match, with both players having previously attacked every lose ball.

Henley 2nds, despite fielding a weakened team, managed a win against Oxford Brookes 2nd team by 3 matches to 2.

At first string, James Noble of ORB was too strong for Paul Sayers and despite a comeback in the third game, Sayers could not maintain the pressure losing 2/9, 3/9, 9/6, 3/9.

James Knight at second string played his normal consistent fetching game and once again managed to frustrate his opponent Jim Lynn, who plays number one for the Henley vets team, 8/10,9/1,10/9, 5/9, 9/6.

Steve Berger at three despite some regular tinning of the ball finally managed to overcome Paul Talbot winning 10/9, 5/9, 9/4, 9/7.

Roger Booker as is becoming a depressing habit managed to lose a match he should have won easily allowing Gavin Tarrant to dictate the game and losing 9/10, 4/9, 9/5, 9/3.

Jill Campion was far too skillful for Ben McKeown, who was frustrated by Campions ability to break up the game and did not allow the game to flow as much as McKeown would have liked, with Campion winning 9/2, 9/7, 9/1.

Henley 15 points, Oxford Brookes 9 points.

In a week when several players were missing and the other teams played on Tuesday and Wednesday, the 3rd team playing on Thursday were left ‘holding the baby’ and only had 4 players available against Bicester.

All the Henley players were up against stronger opponents than they would normally be expected to play and Jonathan Betts performed best – taking a game off Paul Harris at 3rd string. The others, Kristof Kunzmann, Paul Ireland and Freddie Borg fought hard but went down 3-0.

On a very warm evening, Henley 4ths travelled to Wallingford to play their 3rd team. All players struggled with the on-court temperature and finished their matches totally drenched!

At 1st string, Tim Budden took on Andy Peet – a refugee from the Wallingford 2nd team who have withdrawn from the League. This match was a delight to watch – both players exhibiting very classy shots and awesome retrieving. Peet always had the edge, but Budden made a huge effort in the 3rd game to pull into an 8-1 lead. Conditions were taking their toll, and Peet seemed to cope a little better – inexorably pulling back the deficit to eventually take the game and the match 3-0.

Last time this fixture was played, Chris Pullen also came up against Jon Nichols. On that occasion, the Henley player won, but this time Nichols got his revenge in a very closely fought match at 2nd string. Pullen used his pin-point long serves to good effect and had game points in the 4th game to take the match to 2-2, but in the end Nichols hauled himself across the line – admitting afterwards to feeling faint on court due to the heat, and would probably have struggled if the match had gone to a fifth game.

Playing at 3rd string, James Gildersleve lost out to Charlie Stockings. Gildersleve was off the pace, challenging only in the 1st game. Constantly under pressure, his length was lacking throughout, and with an inexplicable tendency to serve out to his opponent’s forehand, 3-0 was the inevitable result.

Duncan Nightingale, at 4th string, started well against Yvonne Boustouller, taking the first game comfortably by playing lots of drop shops, exploiting his opponent’s tendency to stand two paces behind the T. But Boustouller started to play very nice tight shots to the wall and Nightingale’s started to tin his drop shots – and the Wallingford player eventually game back to win 3-1. Sweaty palms leading to lack of grip was Nightingale’s feeble excuse for the outcome! Too many cross courts was the verdict from the gallery!

At 5th string, Matt Blagg yet again turned in a five-game come-back spectacular – providing Henley with their one win on the night. With his trademark “SHHHH” noise when serving, Blagg won the battle of hard hitting against Lisa Reade, coming back from 2-1 down. Blagg’s short boasts were the key difference, often leaving his opponent flat-footed at the back of the court, after a rally of long drives from both players.

The latest Oxfordshire League Tables can be seen here.