EDitorial ± 3-Oct-2017

TT1718, Britannia Buzzards v. Defiants

Season 2016/2017 ended with a wimper with the Defiants tumbling down, down, down to the murky depths of division 3. That, friends, is equivalent to the old football division 4, i.e. the bottom. At least there's nowhere further to fall.

Farewell to bright spark Natalie, off to seek enlightenment at a Russell Group institute of higher learning. New season, though, and new faces to accompany Steve and myself. Hello to Alison, joining us on a free transfer from those Thunderbirds, and hi also to Theo, my six-foot son, guesting for us after a few outings in the summer league. Steve's off in the States for a few weeks and thus unavailable. Here goes nothing.

Fixtures should have started two weeks back. Booking fiasco at Sports Club left us without a table, frustratingly, and last week was deliberately blank. Kicking off tonight up at The Dome, of course, against three players entirely new to me. There's one-eared Matt, big-shorted Mike and lefty Ashley. In brief:

  • Theo, playing his games back-to-back, bounced back from two games down to take Ashley the distance and even had a matchpoint before losing out 13-11 in the fifth
  • Alison breezed past Ashley, couldn't deal with Matt and then, like Theo, lost a really close five-ender to Mike
  • Ed took a few points to get going but had the spin to win all three

Dreadful doubles performance from Ed and Alison resulted in a disappointing 6-4 opening defeat. Early doors, et cetera.