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20/11/2003
HARRUMPH!!!!!!
Peter Crabtree is not pleased at Chichester's loss to Lee-on-Solent ...
Lee-on-Solent 4-1 Chichester
Bradley Ball beat Tim Garner 6-9, 9-5, 9-7, 9-6
Lee Drew beat Tim Vail 5-9, 7-9, 9-5, 9-6, 13-11
Ritwik Bhattacharya beat Laurent Elriani 9-7, 9-7, 9-5
Chris Simpson lost to Chris Tomlinson 4-9, 7-9, 6-9
Vicky Botwright beat Suzie Pierrepont 9-4, 2-9, 9-2, 9-0
Well, it had to happen I suppose, losing to local laddies Lee on Solent. Hasn’t recently – remember the headlines? “Chi always seem to win 3-2”. Not this time though - a gutsy performance from a determined side against a Chi team ravaged by flu, malaria, inebriation and other unexplained absence was good enough to win the match by a disappointing margin, denting Chi’s play-off hopes a little.
With Jelly and Azzy doing battle in New York, we still hoped that we may have had enough to record the usual score-line, but it wasn’t to be. First up was the extremely callipygian Vicky Botwright, with the fast rising Suzie Pierrepont. The first game went comfortably to the Bot, although “Pontins” put up a good fight, and 4 points was the least she deserved. The second was straight out of Bunty or somesuch (showing my age there!) with a storming game by Suzie leveling the match at 1-1.
The expected onslaught then followed as Vicky stepped up the pace and showed why she is on the verge of the top 10 in the World, but Suzie showed signs that she isn’t far behind and with work could be one to watch for the future. 9-2 9-0 finished it off to level the match as Chi had won the first tie to finish as Tommo the Cool comfortably saw off the challenge of Chris Simpson.
The Brighton student showed good pace and some good skills during the match, but Tommo still has the skills to control the rallies, and with his usual array of flicked crosscourts, and that deceptive forehand drive that you are sure is going crosscourt, he had his younger opponent going the wrong way several times. To be fair he looked a bit crocked towards the end, but it made no difference.
Britvic saw off Laurent “Eldorado” Elriani in straight games in a match that was pretty poor. Britvic has improved quite a bit since giving Stacey a run for his money at Guildford last season, and deserved the win, but to be quite honest, I fancied my chances against either of them on the basis of this match.
So it was the Vole against Drew Boy. These two have been playing each other since kindergarten, so it was a bit of a surprise that things went the way they did. Vole played well for the first 2 games, controlling the rallies well, and hitting the occasional nick as is his wont. But the agro kicked off pretty much from the start, and spoiled what should have been a good match, with ultimately the home spectators booing their player, frustrated at his persistent arguing, and almost abuse of the officials.
The problem stemmed from the fact that Lee tends to play the ball and then move directly back towards the T, invariably impeding his opponent’s path to the ball, which, of course, is not allowed. It doesn’t seem to be an intentional block in the Simon Moods style, but Vole got a steady stream of “easy” lets, and Drew Boy got more and more frustrated, and then he got a stroke against which just opened the floodgates. To be fair, the referee was fairly accurate, a couple of dodgy calls against Lee, and a few more against the Vole, but not bad given the tetchy nature of the game.
As it dragged on, the gallery got more pi**ed off with Lee, and every time he opened his mouth was basically told fairly bluntly by the crowd to shut it, but he didn’t. Conduct warning? Forget it, most refs aren’t prepared to use the system for controlling this behaviour, so it gets worse and worse. 3 match points to Vole in the 5th, but just couldn’t do it, so match over and defeat the result. Crap really, we complain about poor support for NSL matches in some cases, but after these two ties, can you blame people for not parting with their money? It was also the first time I can recall seeing Vole lose it on court too.
So we were eager in our anticipation of the smoking volcano known as Brads putting on a fine show of abuse and argument, especially as Tim Garnish had promised to do a lot of talking on court to wind him up. First blood to the now retired Garner with a fine display of movement, clever squash, and a few nicks to brighten things up. Brads looked to be coming to the boil nicely, so we really got excited about what was to come. 2nd game was a reversal of the first, with Brads showing the improvement in his game with some variety, and, wait for it, an overhead volleyed feathered straight nick.
Wow, this was amazing, and the ball almost smiled each time he did it. Then it came – the decision! Well, the world simply imploded as Brads opened his mouth, and said “are you sure?” Just like that. Quietly.
So still no explosion from Mr. Angry. It would come, surely. Anyway, Tim gradually ran out of legs, but played really well, and with a bit more training may be quite close again. And Brads? No more Mr. Nasty, it seems, and a pleasure to watch now with some good variety in his game. He still fairly twats the ball when he wants to, but not all the time now.
So 3-1 it was for a 4-1 overall win to move Lee up the table a bit closer, but we stay second, and have the Brox next.
Now that will be a win to savour! If!
Contributor: Peter Crabtree
Club: Chichester
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