Woking lost to Hurlingham 3-4

[<<] [>>] by Ludolph van Hasselt at Woking
8th May (AC - Mary Rose)

Morning (Hurlingham names first):

Stephen Allen (0) & Andrew Wise (0.5) beat Andrew Dutton (1) & Ian Anderson (2.5) +12

Ludolph van Hasselt (3) beat Colin Groves (3.5) +21

Guy Hewitt (1.5) lost to Sara Anderson (3.5) -10

Afternoon:

Stephen Allen lost to Andrew Dutton -17

Andrew Wise lost to Ian Anderson -19

Ludolph van Hasselt beat Sara Anderson +13

Guy Hewitt beat Colin Groves +5

Match report by Ludolph van Hasselt

The atmosphere at Woking is always positive and, as expected, the welcome extended to the visitors from Hurlingham was warm (including from Frank, the small in stature, but big in mind and voice, dog), for which we were grateful. The day started cold, but as the Hurlingham results came in, the sun came out and warmed the afternoon (and Frank could take off his multi-coloured coat). The Woking team had read the weather forecast more carefully (or more trustingly) and two competitors were out in shorts from the first off, whilst Hurlingham were dressed for winter.

On the lawns the visitors took some time to get used to the lawn speed, which was in contrast to the Hurlingham May Bank Holiday tournament just played on fast lawns. But once in the swing of it a very level match unfolded, the result of which was only resolved on the outcome of the doubles match.

The Woking team had encouraged Colin Groves to play his first competitive games of the season. In the afternoon he showed old form and put up great resistance to Guy Hewitt, who nevertheless prevailed. Sara Anderson deployed her strong game of powerful hitting, using the full extent of the lawn and filling the opposition's hearts with trepidation. Both Andrew Dutton and Ian Anderson were "on fire" (was it the excellent lunch, or the encouragement of Frank?) and ran away with their singles (Ian thought it was best to get home early…), only to be pulled up short in the technically and tactically impressive doubles.

The Hurlingham team had just had three days of tournament play (but so had Woking's Andrew) and, depending on how you look at it, they were either in full flow or a little dazed. But digging deep they did; it ran to the wire, or, actually the peg (although some wires were hit in the process).