THE CAPTAINS' BLOG

Men's 6 Team Captain	22nd November 2008	Match Report 15th November 2008: Chadacre 2 - Tolworth 7   Following on from the disappointing opening match of the season, it was important to get back to winning ways. Unfortunately, there were even fewer players available than last time. Captain Pinckney (still out of action!) managed to find five players who were fit and willing to play, but as time ticked on, he was forced to plunder the dusty archives of previous seasons to find a sixth player......and struck gold, when Jay kindly agreed to leap into the breach at the last moment!!! With suitably low expectations, we made the treacherous journey to Wilson's School....but what a turn around! Russ & Bernie managed 2 wins out of 3, suggesting the start of a profitable partnership, a result matched by the last minute Jay & Nick combination. Thus, when late arrivals, and top pair, Gopi & Daron (sporting an aerodynamic haircut) arrived, they needed only one win to secure the result. They managed to win all of their matches, to secure an overall 7-2 victory.   Roll on Ebbisham next month.....
	13th October 2008	Match Report 12th October 2008: Penguins 7 - Tolworth 2.   A challenging start to the season! The signs weren't good when Captain Pinckney pulled out of the match with three days to go owing to a "not serious" trip to hospital. Today's blog is thus put together by the stand-in captain, who with Bernie managed to accumulate nil points last night, against a Penguins side much strengthened from last year. Even our star top pairing Dan'n'Mark only managed a single win, which Ed'n'Daron equalled, to complete the two wins. Daron's "tan" was the main highlight of the evening. Back to the training ground then...
Ladies Team Captain	27th November 2009	Match Report 14th November 2009: Chadacre 9 - Tolworth 0 I’ve been trying to avoid writing this match report, but …..we suffered what I think is our first ever whitewash. I could offer lots of excuses…….new pairings, lack of practice, recovering from injury, one of the opposition being about 30 years younger than most of us….but in the end, it’s the result that counts and basically, we were trounced. To be fair, the final score line didn’t reflect the closeness of lots of the rallies and we did take several rubbers to 3 ends, but that’s little consolation. Even the cakes didn’t cheer us up much. Oh well, there’s always the return match….
	25th October 2009	Match Report 25th October 2009: Tadworth 5 - Tolworth 4 Guess we can't always have our cake and eat it…literally. Perhaps too many doughnuts and cookies over the summer have taken their toll.  Despite a promising start to the evening (4:2 up going into the last round of 3 games), we somehow lost our steam and tapered off to a narrow 5:4 defeat.  Well done to all who played though, it was a good match.  Fingers crossed we repeat our performance of last season and go on to win all our remaining matches!
	8th December 2008	Match Report 7th December 2008: C & P 4 - Tolworth 5   We played. We won. We ate cake.   Job done! (Ed. But what sort of cake - we all want to know!)
	15th November 2008	Match Report 15th November 2008: Chadacre 1 - Tolworth 8 Could the ladies repeat their winning performance? Not an easy task against the ladies at Chadacre. Perhaps spurred on by the fact our Mens Sutton team were playing on the courts next to us (couldn't be seen to lose!), we managed another encouraging 8:1 win. Some close games with several going to 3 ends, which meant we fully deserved the delicious home-made sponge cake the opposition laid on for us after the match.  Thanks again to Linda for standing in for Sadie.
	26th October 2008	Match Report 26th October 2008: Tolworth 8 - New Malden 1 Fresh from their last victory (and fuelled by some yummy flapjacks), the ladies team went on to produce an even stronger performance against New Malden, winning by 8 games to 1.  Thanks to everyone, and especially Alan (Liz's long suffering 'badminton widower') for the flapjacks!
	22nd October 2008	Match Report 19th October 2008: Tadworth 2 - Tolworth 7 Following the disappointing start to our season, we were all hoping for a better result at our second match. With the Captains dropping the first end of the first game, the confidence was a little shaky to say the least. Fortunately though, we pulled through to take the game and set the precedent for the rest of the match. With Linda kindly standing in for Lisa, we went on to win the match 7:2 overall. A good result all round, well done ladies...and the chocolate muffins weren't bad either! Fran
	20th October 2008	Match Report 16th October 2008: Chart 5 - Tolworth 4. This was always going to be a tough match; Chart beat us once last year and we only beat them on the return after one of their players retired injured part way through the match.   So we were secretly quite pleased when they showed up this time with only two pairs.  A win seemed possible and an early finish also looked likely.  Embarrassingly, though, we still lost 5 – 4.  In our defence, several games went to 3 ends and were lost only narrowly.   Sue Forde left us at the end of last season for new pastures, but Sue Lidbetter has taken over from her and she and Jenny took our only “real” win.   Will try to post a more positive outcome next time………..but I’m happy to report that at least the chocolate cake was good!! Liz
Men's 4 Team Captain	31st October 2009	Match Report 14th October 2009: Sutton Adults 3 - Tolworth 3. A tricky encounter to start the new season, away to Sutton Adults.  Despite the unique sloping court, we battled well and finished with a 3-3 draw. Next up, Wimbledon, who were very strong last season, so we'll need to be in form!
	14th December 2008	Match Report 16th November 2008.  Tolworth 6 - Dorking 0    After a difficult match against Wimbledon, we were looking to get back into winning ways. The signs were ominous, however when a young team arrived all wearing matching shirts. Fortunately for us, we proved to be the more experienced side and swiftly wrapped up a convincing 6-0 victory.
	24th November 2008	Match Report 10th November 2008: Wimbledon 4 - Tolworth 2 Its been a mixed season so far with a close 4-2 defeat in this game following our 6-0 in the last match. It was quite a tight affair, and at least one of the lost matches could have gone the other way. The courts were also much darker and faster than we are used to playing on, so hopefully we will get a bit of an advantage on our home courts in the return fixture. Special mention must go to the Wimbledon guys for the post match jacket potatoes however; it was the first time anyone can remember getting a hot meal after the match
	24th November 2008	Match Report 2nd November 2008: C & P 0 - Tolworth 6 After a disappointing start to the season against St. Andrews we got a much better result away to Coulsden and Purley. The team consisting of Russ, Matt, Neil and new player Mike won all of the matches in straight games giving us a 6-0 win. One or two of the games were slightly more tense than the final score suggests, but on the whole the result was never in doubt so well done to all the team!
	23rd October 2008	Match Report 19th October 2008: Tolworth 2 - St Andrew's 4 The Men's 4's Team had an interesting start to the season at home to St. Andrews on Sunday. Looking to bounce back from relegation last season, things got off too a bad start when we lost a player in the first game after he fell awkwardly and sprained his ankle. This meant we had to conceded three games in a best of six match, meaning the best we could possibly hope for was a draw. The rest of the team battled brilliantly to try and salvage something, but unfortunately we came up slightly short and ended up losing the match 4-2. Hopefully we will have more luck next time out!
Mixed Team Captain	4th November 2009	Match Report 1st November 2009: Tolworth 4 - Chadacre 5 All Saints were not smiling on us, as yet another change to all the Tolworth pairings hampered efforts to continue our winning streak of one match. Ian, standing in for Russ, and playing with Lisa, managed to injure himself during the first game, which was narrowly lost. Unfortunately this didn't improve, and after a struggling second game they had to withdraw and concede the third. Sadie, playing with Nick, recorded her first two victories of the season - both hard-fought games of three ends. Finally Dan and Liz were left with the final game at 4 games all, but were eventually overcome by the unfairly good skills of a teenager who has apparently been coached too well. 5-4 loss.
	4th November 2009	Match Report 29th October 2009: St Andrew's 4 - Tolworth 5 A very close match, St Andrews away in the tiny church hall is always a difficult place to play. Along traditional lines, Tolworth first pair dominated and won their 3 matches and our third pair struggled against the experienced opposition pairs, leaving it up to the second pair to make the decider. After a 24-22 win to close out the first match, and a 28-30 loss to drop the second, Lisa and Nick found a final reserve of energy at 11:00pm to win the final game and make it 5-4. At least the next match will be at home, where St Andrews will struggle with the wide open spaces and their agrophobia will count against them...
	20th October 2009	Match Report 20th October 2009: Foresters 5 - Tolworth 4 A very close match, with honours even going into the final game, but despite an epic struggle, Fran and Nick went down 19-21, 21-18, 21-19 to Jimmy and Debbie and Foresters clinched it. A big improvement in the scoreline at least, on the previous match, but not quite there yet. Lets hope Russ's knee gets better for the next game, and Mark remembers his shoes...
	11th October 2009	Match Report 11th October 2009: Tolworth 1 - Chadacre 8 Not a great start to the season, but the matches were closer than the scoreline suggests. Chadacre quickly opened up a 2-1 lead over Tolworth, and things never really improved for us. Still, its difficult not to improve from this, and the Chadacre side are always one of the hardest to play. On the plus side, nearly everyone turned up on time, the new shuttles lasted very well, the courts and lighting were good, and the sandwiches were complemented!    More practice needed!
	15th March 2009	Match Report 15th March 2009: Foresters 4 - Tolworth 5 Tough match, which in the end was decided by the last game of the night. We were nearly undone by the opposition pair with a 15 year old, ex-tolworth player, winning all their games against us! In the end, a gritty performance by all pairs pulled us through. Congratulations to Gopi for turning up very nearly on time.
	1st March 2009	Match Report 1st March 2009: Penguins 3 - Tolworth 6 A solid performance by the team. All three pairs won their opening games, which set the tone for a good victory. Special thanks to super-sub Dan, who stood behind Liz very competently, and watched her win 3/3 games. Also to Gopi, who soldiered on with an injury to his left arm, despite now being 30 years old.
	22nd February 2009	Match Report 9th February 2009: Tolworth 5 - Chadacre 4 Despite some hard fought games by pairs 2 and 3, contributing one win each, only Mark and Liz's reliable wins pulled us through this one, against a well known, solid Chadacre side.
	9th February 2009	Match Report 9th February 2009: Ebbisham 0 - Tolworth 9   A match remembered for its late start, as 2 of our three pairs were an hour late in arriving. Also for the flatteringly one-sided scoreline, which did not reflect some good matches.
	8th December 2008	Match Report 22nd November 2008: Chadacre 4 - Tolworth 5 Pleased to report that the single mixed fixture before Christmas has been won, in a narrow 5-4 encounter at Wilson School against Chadacre. Mark and Liz again proved a solid anchor, winning all 3 games, while the other two pairs scratched one win apiece to go one better than last year, and get the result. Tough match, for most of us, and a good one to win.
Surrey League Men's Captain