Friday was still hot and sunny in the evening. St Budeaux’s courts are arranged such that a setting summer sun is a problem at one end. This problem eventually went away because the matches lasted into the night. Fairly dark by the end at about 9:30pm.
All our matches lasted a while, partly because of long games and also tie breaks. In the number one pairing, first tie, Tim and Phil lost the first set, then took the second set to a tie breaker that they won, followed by a third set tie breaker that they also one. In the second pairing, Steve and Dave lost the first set, easily one the second, then eventually won the third set tie breaker.
As with ourselves, there wasn’t a lot of difference in standard between St Budeaux pairings, so the second matches were also close. Steve and Dave went to tie break twice, eventually winning both, possibly because of a better guessing where the ball was in the dark.
Tim and Phil had a slightly easier time of it second time. The end result was 67 points to Plymstock and 34 to St Budeaux. (Which is not what it says on the scorecard, but I’ve added it up again, and sent an email pointing out our mistake.)
