Chris and Nath’ took all 3 of theirs, going to 3 on 2 of them ( something about serves being out, but I’ll say no more!), while Glyn and Sarah steamrollered the opposition with 3 straight wins without either of them breaking into am sweat (fortunately).

Matt and Jayne took 2 out of their 3, only losing to the Holm View firsts on a very close 3rd game.

Vale 8 Holm View 1 – Well done everyone, really great win! Let’s keep it up.

no courts on Sunday, Tuesday we have 1 court booked in case anyone fancies a final fling of their racquets before piling on the pounds over Xmas. Back to normal January 3rd.

The Moderates will be held on 8th of January in Treforest. Will you inform your members and let me know who will be entering? Hopefully Ian will send out the form soon

Thanks Les

Have you ever had that sinking feeling when you walk in to play and you haven’t even picked up your racquet yet?

This happened on Thursday when it was noted that half the players on court for Penarth B were recently on court at the Vale when they beat our A team, oh dear…

Dave and Nige paired up for their first game together all season. It turns out that preparing by playing no games at all together and ensuring that, even at club nights, they were never on court at the same time is not the way forward.  Who knew? I recently put ‘Communication’ into my online thesaurus and under the ‘antonym’ section it had a YouTube clip of Dave and Nige playing against Penarth….

Glyn and Andy came on as 2nds and did their best but only managed the one.
Howard and Matt also played valiantly but couldn’t secure a win.

Final score 7-2 to Penarth.

Not to detract from the supreme depth and talent of Penarth we need to do better.
On the plus side the game due for the 11th was handed to us on the ‘Silver Platter of Concession’, (an ancient and much loved article from the realm of ‘you need all the help you can get’, bordering with ‘take it and runville…’). Happy days. Another 3 of those and we will stay up.

Merry Christmas all.
:-)

just a quick note to the captains to say that Len suffered a 3rd degree calf strain while playing at Nomads last Monday.

Degrees of strain start at 1 and go to 3 – so Len, not wanting to do things by halves, went all out for the most severe.

Len says he’s looking to this guy for inspiration now…

“Can we rebuild him?”

Men’s B at home to Llantarnam on Sunday 11th December has been conceded.

Once again a visit to the tombola that is the C team helped make up the numbers… Our second taste at the higher level and it’s fair to say a noticeable difference in consistency between divisions. The key appears to be patience and reliable play rather than playing all out ‘winners’ which invariably get returned!  Maintaining the attack is tricky with tighter net play and flatter shots but all in all it’s a lot more fun than the run of 9-0s that we enjoyed in Division 3 (honest).

Matt and Nige stepped up as 1sts and went down with all guns jammed and fizzing in 2 straight games; 19 and 19. Not detracting from a talented home 1st pair Matt and Nige looked shaky throughout both knowing they could do better as they left the court in defeat. Things improved  for their next games, as they got into their stride, polishing off 2nd and 3rds in 2.

Unfortunately Vale 2nd pairings, Glyn and Andy, failed to win a game all night which left a huge burden on our stand ins, Nathan and Howard. They rose to the task and took very tough games to  the wire and two wins against 2nd and 3rds but just couldn’t contain the hard hitting home first pair.

Final score 5-4 to Holm View.

Both nights therefore club nights.

However, a superhero appeared and valiantly stepped into the breach in the form of Andy Kyle, despite having to leave Cardiff, go to Margam, come back to Cardiff and all for half an hour too soon because the league handbook is out of date! Andy held his own extremely well and was greatly welcomed into the team.

The delay didn’t deter the team’s efforts, though, with Glyn and Alison beating their 2nds and 3rds convincingly. Chris and Andrew were determined to get their money’s worth despite Chris’s aching joints from the last 2 matches with all theirs going to 3 but only taking their 3rds. The scores were all very close too.

Jayne and Matt again fought extremely well and although they didn’t take any games, their efforts were outstanding.

Although another loss, the scores are getting better! Keep it up, team. 6 – 3 to Cardiff A.

One more match before Xmas! Thanks to you all.

Others have been poached and some have gone back where they belong, having visited the lower ranks for a season and deciding it was so awful that it was worth eating salad and doing some running to get back in the A team… (you know who you are!)

So with a new team and a real mix up of partnerships the Vale B found themselves on the brink of their first match at a new level. The Team Captain did nothing to help settle any nerves by going over on his ankle and putting himself out just a week before the opening game… He did take the Captain’s role well though and despite being injured did come down to lend support and give advice from the side lines!

So in true Vale style a visit to the bargain bucket that is the C team was called for. Of course the realty is our C team is a force to be reckoned with and there’s plenty of talent to choose from.

Stepping on to the court the teams were as follows:

• Nige & Matt (1sts)
• Glynn & Andy (2nds)
• Nathan and Len (3rds)

Brilliant to see Nathan back on court and of course always a pleasure to see the wily old fox that is Len (half man half support bandage).

Matt and Nige haven’t played together for a long time and they looked shaky against a very strong opposition 1st pair.

Taking it to 3 they had a fantastic rally to finish. A thundering smash from half court by Matt was picked up from behind the back by the opposition for Nige to drive it flat and hard forcing the error and sealing the win.

Glynn and Andy looked like they’d been playing together all season and despatched the 2nds with no fuss. The combination of Andy’s front play and Glynn’s back court play looked formidable.

Luckily for the 3rds the visiting team failed to notice that one player is made up of elastic supports and the other has knees made of porridge. Nathan and Len gelling well and finishing it in 2.

The next round went much the same way and the visiting 1st pair pushed it to 3 only to have Andy’s ‘quicker than the human eye’ tricks at the net and Glynn’s incredibly consistent use of the frame proving too much.

Nige and Matt were now looking more confident and a contender for shot of the season from Matt helped see them finish off the visiting 3rd pair in 2.

Unfortunately Nathan and Len couldn’t get the better of the 1sts in the final game but it didn’t really matter. The Vale secured the win 7-2.

The Arches were a really nice team to play and there was plenty of good sportsmanship from both sides too.

Well done Vale!

Nothing to do with the matching fluorescent pink T shirts they both were wearing! That said, Chris wore pink too, and she and Nathan beat their 3rds in 2 straight games, but were unable to hold out against their 1sts after taking the 2nd game convincingly.

Again, Matt and Jayne put in a really great effort with some very close games but couldn’t quite take them.

Perhaps the games we won were  down to the pink T shirts! I think I’ll ask the whole team to wear them for the next match!

Brilliant effort by all, close loss at 6 – 3