22nd February 2014

The VCGB were delighted to host the Fitzwilliam Club in London and return the great hospitality of the previous year. Fitzwilliam spent their first evening at the RAC and played a friendly match against the Club. However they were obviously early to bed, as the team that arrived for the fixture at Colets Club the next morning was fit and fresh.

Numbers 4 and 5 strings were on first. Peter Leary and Aubrey Waddy had contrasting fortunes against strong opponents. Peter's opponent Karam was on devastating form and try as he might Peter could not eke out a game, 3/0 to Karam and first blood to Fitzwilliam. However on the other court Aubrey was redressing the balance with a battling 3/1 win. So with the match poised at one all Steve Jackson and Alasdair Niven stepped on court. Alasdair had a tough game and went down fighting 3/1 at which point Steve was at 1/1. "Come on Steve we need this," urged Tammy Bennett, whereupon he promptly lost the next to go 2/1 down. At 8/5 up in the 3rd it looked like he might come back, but he let his opponent off the hook and only by some sneaky drops did he manage to level the scores. It looked like it was to no avail as he slumped to 7/3 in the fifth, but a comeback saw him on match ball at 8/7. With both opponents gasping for oxygen the game went down to the wire with Steve just edging it 10/9 after over an hour on court! Meanwhile Tammy had already seen off her opponent on the other court in an impressive 3/0 victory and Stuart Hardy was already one up. With victory beckoning Stuart could not quite pull it off and in a high quality game Fitzwilliam edged it 3/1 to leave the match scores level 3/3 - a very fair result.

After the rigours of the match a lunch was hosted by Colets, where the draw was mulled over and toasted by the two sides. Those lucky enough to have tickets attended Twickenham for the England Ireland rugby match and to complete a very full day all arrived at Queens Club for the annual dinner. As well as the VCGB there were also a team from the Jesters and a tennis team from Queens, who also had been in action against Fitzwilliam, so a large banqueting table was set out for over 50 participants and their guests. A magnificent meal followed which was rounded off with speeches from each of the participating Captains. Steve Jackson spoke for the Vets Club following introductory remarks from Robert Dolman which were both enlightening and entertaining.

Full results were as follows: