Chelmsford Blue v Enfield E 28th July 2017

Chelmsford Blue team of Paul Bridgman (3) Judith Hand (4) John Skuse (4) and Deb Clarke (10) playing in her first club match entertained an Enfield E team of Peter Brock (5) Michael Broadway (7) David Hill (8) and Alan Bateman (9) in a handicap league match at Writtle today. Fortunately the weather behaved once again and although windy it was quite warm and, despite the greyness above the courts, no rain fell. Well that is the good news. Now for an account of the match which started with Enfield winning both doubles and 6 of the first 8 singles to establish an 8-2 lead before a break for lunch. Fortunes improved only marginally on the restart with 3 wins from the remaining 8 singles. Match result: Chelmsford Blue 5 (96 hoops) Enfield East 13 (113 hoops). John with 3 wins and Paul 2 salvaged something from the wreckage. Judith unluckily lost 2 of her singles on the 13th hoop whilst Deb, understandably nervous at the start , improved as the day went on and took Michael Broadway to the 12th hoop. High spots of the day from a Chelmsford perspective were few but the efforts David Hill made to avoid a ball accidentally heading in his direction at a rate of knots from short range will be remembered by your correspondent for some time. The agility with which he prevented a non-striking fault with a twist and jump helped him win yet another game thus resulting in a handicap cut to 7. Congratulations to Enfield for a fine win which continues their unbeaten run in this competition. JS