So, here I sit, at my desk this morning after an extremely narrow, yet deserved, victory last night.
The format is that a team handicap is calculated for both sides and from that one will be given a start with the other remaining on 0. Therefore, the chasing team know how many points they need to make up over the 16 matches. Our chasing total was 76, so gaining 5 points every match would suffice.
After the first two matches, we weren't feeling too optimistic as they had fielded a stronger team than we'd hoped. Nevertheless, we had won the second 21-18 thanks to a strong performance from Phazit and I had won the first 21-17 against a good division one player. Then our third teammate pulled an awesome performance out of the bag to put us back on schedule and with 58 points needed from 13 games. After another solid win in game four from teammate 4, Phazit strengthened our position by sealing a convincing 21-10 win over the player I'd played.
So, onto the sixth game we went - and it was me to play. My opponent knew how to keep the ball on the table but the only weapon he really possessed was a big forehand that invariably missed. I was a little disappointed with this performance because I started sluggishly and the score line ended up a little too close for my liking, 21-15 the result. This left us with only 37 points to gain, however, after only 6 games had been decided. By the time the halfway mark was reached, teammates 3 & 4 had produced stonking performances to leave us only needing 12 points from 8 games (their scores were 21-11 and 21-6!).
The next four games went pretty much to plan with a narrow 21-19 loss and three wins - one of those being another impressive win for Phazit (21-11) and another was, despite a lacklustre performance, mine with a 21-19 victory.
And so began the final round of four games to decide the winner and we looked set to defeat our opponents, who had undeniably fought valiantly, as we were already two points up on them. However, the first two games cancelled eachother out, with a game being won by each side 21-19. We needed a good victory in this penultimate match now to give Phazit some breathing space in the last. Unfortunately, I hadn't been playing very well all night - the lack of practice showing through - and it was I who was on.
Everything was looking OK and I felt I had the game under control as at the change of ends, the score was 10-7 in my favour. However, things went downhill from there: I started missing forehands off his anti-spin, which was something I'd never had a problem with before, and he began to build some momentum. After another few points, the umpire called "13-13" and it wasn't looking good. Then a backhand and a forehand went off the end from me in consecutive points, leaving me two down with just two serves left in the sequence of 5. I managed to pull one back but then he got the better of me in the next rally, before I then whipped away a forehand down the line off his anti - my first good shot for quite some time!
The score at 16-15 to my opponent, I just needed to play steadily and try to grind out this win. But he had no intentions of letting that happen as, for the first time in the match, he produced two lovely forehands in a row. I immediately responded with one of my own, before making a basic error to give him a three point lead at the change of serves - I was getting seriously frustrated with myself at this point, having made so many silly mistakes! We were then engaged in a rally at 19-16 when he got an edge - 20-16!! So, four points down I thought I'd better just hang in there and get as many points as possible to try and help Phazit as much as I could in the last match. I couldn't do this, however, and pushed the ball just off the side, leaving with a 21-16 loss and this funny taste in my mouth - it was quite... Bitter
That left us 3 points down with just one to play and it was looking very grim for us when Phazit was down 9-6 :/ But, out of nowhere, he mustered up a great display in the next TWELVE POINTS and took the score to 18-9!! There was no way he was slipping up from there, and so it proved as he came out the victor by a margin of nine points, a 21-12 win
A great win in the end which takes us through to the next round where we'll be looking for a much more convincing performance hopefully!
As for me - apart from the final game,I played well and played some good shots, footwork was also above average which was nice. The main thing that let me down was silly errors that will hopefully be ironed out with good practice
Sorry there are no videos guys, and it's just a lot of reading instead, but at least it prevents cricked necks, eh?
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