Hurlingham lost to Phyllis Court 2-5

[<<] [>>] by Frances Colman at Hurlingham
14 May 2012 (GC - Murphy Shield)

The 'Phyllis Court 'voo-doo' worked again for the visitors, who got another one over on Hurlingham in a National Cup competition - but this time it was the Murphy Shield.
Two years ago the Henley-on-Thames Club sprang a surprise victory over their better known reciprocal Club friends in their debut in Inter Club Championship, and that still wrankles with some the London Club.
And today very similar narrow winning margins were in evidence, showing just how well matched these two rivals are at GC team level.
Raymond Wood and competition newcomer Mike Fensome lead the way from the number 3 & 4 berths for Phyllis Court with victories in all four of their singles rubbers but all was far from plain sailing.
The final score-line of 5 rubbers to 2 hides the detail that, of the 17 games played, just two ended 7-4, four were 7-5 and no less that 11 went to the final hoop!
With such repeated cliffhanger endings, reminiscent of Man City's Premier League title snatch the day before, the crowd of one man (with no dog) was kept in suspense right until the end.
At Lunch, it was anyone's game after Hurlingham had won the doubles, Wood had wrapped up his first singles match-up for Phyllis Court and the other tie was balanced at one game all (with the decided to be 'put on ice')
The usual splendid Hurlingham hospitality was rolled out once more, and then nicely refreshed, Phyllis Court's Helena Fensome and Hurlingham skipper John Malvern kept the game even with one more victory for each side.
Mike Fensome was next to finish to give the visitors a narrow 3 - 2 advantage and then Raymond Wood sealed victory for Phyllis Court, typically at hoop 13, after a 'ding dong' of about 25 positioning and clearance shots traded with Peter Quinn, who then crucially missed a 'sitter' hoop shot in untypical fashion.

'Shot of the Day' was a tough call between Hurlingham's Richard Hoskyns audacious running through the back of the 13th hoop from the South boundary to secure the doubles encounter when Helena Fensome and Frances Colman were posed to take it to a deciding game, and an 'in off' shot by Phyllis Court's Raymond Wood, to wrap up his morning match with Hugh Carlisle.
For Hurlingham, it was a case of 'what might have been' but for Phyllis Court it's a quarter final tie against the winner of Kenilworth and Watford.

Results (Phyllis Court names first):
Helena Fensome (2) & Frances Colman (3) lost to Richard Hoskys (2) & John Malvern (3) 6 - 7, 6 - 7
Raymond Wood (4) beat Hugh Carlisle (4) 7 - 6, 7 - 6
Mike Fensome (4) beat Peter Quinn (3) 4 - 7, 7 - 6, 7 - 6
Helena Fensome (2) beat Richard Hoskyns (2) 7 - 6, 4 - 7, 7 - 5
Frances Colman (3) lost to John Malvern (3) 5 - 7, 7 - 6, 6 - 7
Raymond Wood (4) beat Peter Quinn (3) 7 - 5, 7 - 6
Mike Fensome (4) beat Hugh Carlisle (4) 7 - 6, 7 - 5

Match Result: Phyllis Court 5, Hurlingham 2