Another happy week in the box leagues!
With 11 matches played this week its been a frenzy getting everyone’s reviews on the games! I’m seeing a lot of people thoroughly enjoying the competition and a lot of drive from people to continue on up the boxes and to start playing for the Monday and Wednesday night league teams!
This is your 2 week warning folks! Boxes 3, 4 and 7 I’m looking at you in particular!
Box 10
Raghbir makes good use of his powerful serve to take a win over newcomer Steph (3-0) in her first ever box league match (welcome to the boxes!)Steph still has some work to do on her volleys and retrieving the ball from the back of the court, but these are things that will come with time. She says that as long as she got past Raghbir’s serve she got on OK, so there are definitely some positives there to build on!
Alex takes his first win of the box leagues from Janine in a tense set of matches marred by strokes and contentious points (3-0). Alex definitely needed to work hard, with Janine chasing a clean sweep through Box 10, but eventually the hard work paid off. Janine took consolation from the fact that at the end of the game Alex looked like he’d run a mile, while she was her usual cool, calm and composed self! Alex will be hoping to come to terms with real game situations like scoring, strokes and lets, but these will come with time!
Box 9
Richard takes his second game of the rotation, this time against Angela (3-0). Angela knows Richard is a hard player to take on, with difficult serves and quick tempo making it difficult to get into a good rhythm. Angela will be focusing in future on claiming the points from her own service points, capitalising on taking control of the tempo of the match.
Peter takes another win this rotation, this time against Angela (3-0) to move him to within grasping difference of the top spot, and well into the promotion bracket. After getting his serves under control, and realising Angela’s drop shots would be the end of him, Peter managed to focus on applying his massive bank of power and forced Angela to the back of the court. Angela acknowledged the effort, saying she struggled to return anything hit at pace to the back of the court, most of her points coming straight off of the serve. The rest of the box will need to focus on their play from the back of the court if they want to overtake Mr McGowan now.
In a disappointing start to Ann’s rotation, Jaime takes a win (3-0) over last rotations star of Box 10. An claims she was slightly out-classed by the new-comer, but her own performance was fairly consistent. Jaime is looking forward to climbing the boxes and getting stuck in to some properly challenging matches.
Box 8
Archie shows off his front-of-the-court prowess once more, this time against Sophia, taking a tidy 3-0 win. Archie is becoming the one to beat in this box with Scott sitting within reach at the top of the box, taking down Archie will be the first step for most to make their own way upwards!
Like father, like daughter seems to be the case this rotation (exempting the youth, agility and good manners of course 😉 ), as Scott also seems to be unstoppable in Box 8. This time it was Sophia who couldn’t keep up with the improving Scott’s shots (3-0). He claims not to have played very well despite the score, not being able to find his length effectively and resorting to keeping things simple and playing the shots that would keep Sophia on her toes.
Box 7
Box 6
In a tough, physically demanding match for both players, Alaisdair eventually comes out on top with a win over Ben Anderson (3-2). After the first game to big Al Ben’s assessment was that he would need to rally before the next (his pun not mine, though don’t think i’m not jealous). Ben managed to battle through to take the 2nd fairly easily as Al’s fitness looked to be flagging. A 3rd game given away by unforced errors and strokes put Al under pressure, but seemingly not enough! Al came back to take the next 2 games as Ben just couldn’t keep up! Definitely an opportunity missed for Mr Anderson, who’ll be hoping for a rematch soon to even the score!
Putting her unstoppable mix of youth and daily practice into action, Robyn takes down another of the hardened players in Box 6. This time it was Russell that fell to Robyn’s agility (3-1). Keeping Russell moving and carefully choosing her shots left Russell with very few options. Can anyone stop this girl?!
Box 5
In a disappointing result for this rather dashing young reporter, Adrian takes the biscuit in a 3-0 win that does no justice to the effort involved for both players. Adrian’s fast, low, cross court drives to the forehand were of such a consistent width and quality that every single loose shot was destroyed instantly! I’m going to have to work hard in the future to keep my drop shots lower, too many balls hanging right in front of the front wall at perfect striking height gave the game away. A great match though, I’m very much looking forward to the re-match!
Box 4
Box 3
Box 2
In the first match of the rotation for Box 2, The craigs squared up to get the measure of each other! It was Mr Bennet that came away victorious (3-0), bringing his win/lose margin against Mr Rothnie up to +1. In a signature comment on the game, he relates it was a fun game, though it probably wouldn’t have been if he’d lost. Fair to say Mr Rothnie will be aiming to make their next head to head less fun for Mr Bennet!
Box 1