Tonight was the turn of the men to take on Emerson Eagles 4 at our other home venue in Hornchurch. With 3 of the team missing for the fixture, it was Kenny, Henry and myself who stepped up.
Gary set the pairings which meant myself playing with Oliver (1st pair), Gary playing with Henry (2nd pair) and Kenny playing with Kevin (3rd pair).
The night started off with myself and Oliver against their first pairing. It took a while for us to get used to the conditions at Hornchurch again as they are very different from Bower Park but we managed to scrape through the first game 21-17. The second game was more comfortable as we found out rhythm and we took it 21-16.
Second game of the night was Gary and Henry against Emerson’s second pairing. Our guys didn’t get up to speed in the first game and lost it 7-21. The second game was much closer but Emerson pipped it 20-21 to even the matches up.
The third game saw Kevin and Kenny take on their 3rd pairing. It was more comfortable for them taking the first game 21-16 then they stepped it up a notch and won the second game 21-13 to make it 2-1 to us on the night.
Next up was Gary and Henry against Emerson’s first pairing. With our guys kicking themselves about their first match, it was time to ramp things up a bit. They took the first game comfortably 21-11 to get back on track. However, the second game didn’t go to plan and it was lost 17-21 to take it to a decider. The last game was close running throughout but Emerson nicked it 21-17 to make it 2-2 on the night.
It was Kevin and Kenny’s turn next against Emerson’s second pairing. The first game was close with the guys winning 21-18 but once they were warmed back up again, they took the second game at a more comfortable score of 21-12 to take us into a 3-2 lead on the night.
Now was the time for Oliver and me to take to the court against their 3rd pairing. With a quick change of tactics we took the first game comfortably 21-11. The second game was a lot closer but we were just too strong for them and took it 21-17 to make it 4-2 on the night.
Kevin and Kenny then took on the first pairing from Emerson in their last match of the night. Since Kevin and Kenny were on fire on the night, we were confident of a good win and they didn’t disappoint. The first game went 21-14 and the second 21-11, meaning we were up 5-2 on the night and 2 league points were in the bag. We just needed another win to give us a bonus point.
As we had 2 courts at Hornchurch, it was myself and Oliver against their second pair and Gary and Henry against their third pair for the final matches of the night.
Myself and Oliver didn’t start off too good and we got confused with the score. We thought we were 19-16 up facing serve but we were in fact 20-19 down facing serve. Emerson served out the game and took it 21-19. Not wanting to let things get us down, we headed straight back on for the second game. We stepped up our game and got some luck on our side with some of the net shots and took the game 21-10 to take it to a decider. It was fairly neck and neck up to the changeover (at 11 points). After that, we started to pull away and not even a snapped string on my racket could stop us winning the game 21-15 to take our third point of the night and put the score at 6-2.
With Gary and Henry’s match not going to plan, the opposition took the first game 16-21. The next game was much closer but the opposition nicked it again 19-21 to take the final point of the night.
Final score 6-3 to Corinthians which was enough to take us to the top of the table with a match in hand over the second placed team. Thanks to Kenny and Henry for filling in for Tom and Andrew.
Next match for the men is in 2 weeks away to Emerson Eagles.
– Ross
