EDitorial ± 3-Jan-2017

TT1617, Defiants v. Britannia Petrels

That unusual noise in the house last night (necessitating a brief pause to The Lady In The Van) was the old skool landline. Hi Ed, said a voice. We've got a game against you tomorrow. Can you book us in?

Now, it seemed unlikely that the TT season would resume so soon after Christmas. I checked my fixture list and, sure enough, that showed the first game as next week. And then I remembered hearing of a mistake on the IDTTL website with the fixtures, and that it showed the wrong dates for the second half. Oh.

New Year, no Yang, who's decamped to Cambridge mid-season. Good luck and so long. Thankfully Natalie and Steve volunteered their services at very short notice to give the Defiants a fighting chance. Visiting were Petrels who'd walloped us 9-1 back in November with Yang grabbing the only point. However, that line-up didn't include Ed or Natalie. In came spinny Bernie, lefty John and ambidextrous Paul. In brief:

  • decent 2/3 for Natalie, winning all of six points in three games against Bernie but bouncing back to pip Paul
  • decent 2/3 for Ed, also coming unstuck against Bernie but also edging out Paul 11-9 in the 5th just like Natalie
  • respectable 1/3 for Steve, beating John in straight ends

No joy for Ed and Natalie in the doubles but we already had five points in the bag. Draw's a highly acceptable result against this lot. Gonna be a tough remainder of the season.