Phyllis Court beat Ashby 6-0

Our '2+' team entertained Ashby in the first round of the Murphy Shield on Tuesday. Three of the Leicestershire visitors had driven down to Henley the night before and stayed at PCC. On Court 1, Dianne Browne put the first point on the board for PCC in her usual quick-fire manner, winning 7-4, 7-6. Russell Robinson was not far behind her, prevailing 7-2, 7-4. On Court 2, Rick Lilley and Raghu Iyer had a much more closely fought affair in the doubles match, which was suspended at one game all as luncheon beckoned.

As a cold morning morphed into a pleasantly warm afternoon, things got still rosier for PCC as Dianne once again wasted no time in defeating her second opponent 7-4, 7-3, and our victory was secured by mid-afternoon when Russell recovered from a post-sandwich slump in form to grind down his adversary 5-7, 7-2, 7-1. Again, Court 2 saw more closely fought games, with Rick ultimately winning 7-5, 4-7, 7-5, followed by success for Raghu with a spectacular 13th hoop by 5-7, 7-5, 7-6.

So despite being evenly matched on paper, PCC won the tie by 6½ games to ½, with there being no need to play-out the morning doubles match, and the teams retired to the bar, where our very amiable visitors said they had really enjoyed their day despite the result. A big 'thank you' goes to Helena Fensome for refereeing the tie and to the several members who turned out to support the team.