25/26 February 2017

Once again we had the pleasure of being hosted by our friends in Dublin over the weekend of 25/26th February. We took a team of 6 players and battle commenced on Friday evening.

Patrick Fleming and Tammy Bennett were first on court against Captain, Damian O'Reilly and Michael Roden. Patrick played superbly and reeled of a close and hard fought, but 3/0, victory. Michael was thirsting for revenge after losing to Tammy last year at Roehampton. On steamy hot courts he quickly went 2/0 up and although Tammy pegged him back a game he was not to be denied and duly completed his revenge 3/1.

Jim Flynn was lurking down the order at 3 and surprised Peter Culver who got going too late - 3/0 to Fitzwilliam. At number 5 Kim Ricks was far too strong for the only ladies member of the Dublin team, Christine Mooney and won in relaxed style 3/0.

So with the match score at 2/2 could Steve Jackson and Gordon Kerr at 1 and 2 conjure a win for the visitors. Their opponents Gerry Callanan and Karam Singh did not make it easy and the games see sawed back and forward. Gordon managed to scrape a 3/2 win against a very stylish opponent which left The Vets poised for victory. Could Steve somehow conjure up a win against Ireland Over 50 team player Gerry? Things did not look good as Steve lost the first 9/0. But as he got used to the courts and heat, he managed to square the match at 1/1. The next two games were traded with Steve managing to rescue the 4th from 7/2 down. Fortunately his opponent did not notice his use of the racket as a crutch, as all the usual delaying tactics were used to gain him some more air. The final game was nip and tuck and at 8/8 it was anybody's, but Steve managed to find just enough to scrape home. Match score 4/2 to VCGB.

After the match a wonderful meal and copious quantities of drink were poured down our willing throats. Needless to say the match the next day proved to be a different story as we wondered why we had stayed up to the early hours of the morning.

All pairings were the same except that Kim played Michael who again show his mastery over the ladies with a 3/0 win. Tammy played Christine Mooney and recorded a 3/0 victory. However all the other matches were a reversal of the previous day and all 3/0, except Gordon who managed to scrape a game. There is a moral here somewhere........... The match score was thus 4/2 to Fitzwilliam and on the basis of scoring more games on countback they decided to keep the trophy!

After the game lunch was provided and 2 of our team, Kim & Gordon, were lucky enough to be offered complimentary tickets to the France Ireland rugby match at Lansdowne Road. Gordon's ticket should have been Tammy's, but she was not around when they were on offer at late notice!

A superb dinner on the Saturday evening concluded events and we look forward to hosting the event next year in the UK.

Stephen Jackson

Patrick Fleming, Steve Jackson, Kim Ricks, Gordon Kerr, Peter Culver, Tammy Bennet