Katie Scott explores what the New Year has to offer for Wychelm BC
The 2016/17 season is now in full swing and has until April to run its course. This evening, we played in an away mixed combination game against Corinthians, based at Bower Park School. Always well-equipped in cake, quick shots and an undercurrent of rivalry, we were gearing up for an enjoyable evening of on-the-edge tension as the games see-sawed between victory and loss as we fended off smashes, drops and clears with a club we are extremely well-matched against.
Results:
- Katie and Helen: 20-21 / 17-21
- Gary and Het: 18-21 / 21-20 / 21-12
- Gary and Helen: 15-21 / 15-21
- Katie and Het: 10-21 / 21-19 / 21-20
- Het and Helen: 21-19 / 21-16
- Gary and Katie: 18-21 / 21-15 / 15-21
Judging by the list above, I hope you can all convey how impossibly close the games were! Excitingly, I believe this is our first draw for a mixed evening – we either win by a shave or lose spectacularly so this was a very pleasant surprise, and also highlighted how evenly matched we are against our pals at Corinthians. With three games apiece, you can’t say fairer than that.
Corinthians’ play a pacey game, so it’s imperative to keep up. In particular, I felt the guys of the squad were pushing the corners of the back of the court with an array of clears, drives and smashes that were driving our men folk to distraction and I felt that cross court shots were a favourite option – no doubt because the undeniably slippy floor had us tentatively lunging, attempting not to slide! The games were quick, and shuttle control was also pretty fair between the pairs. Corinthians have a lovely style of play that is rather similar to our own, with ladies who are interceptive at the net yet giving full throttle at the back of the court, and male players who had me ducking for cover numerous times.
I had to say, I’m also pretty proud of my squad right now. Het in particular played brilliantly to win all of his matches this evening so massive kudos to him – there’s a reason he is our consistent Big Smasher at the Wychelm BC Awards! Helen picked up some really difficult drops to catch out our opponents, as well as delivering her own style of cross court drop and her trademark curved serve for extra sneak-factor, while Gary was his usual full on self, blasting the court with smashes, peppering the net with drops and generally using his long legs to increase court coverage. I think my main contribution to the evening came in the form of my short serve, although I appreciate I wasn’t as interceptive as I wanted to be as I was too slow and I also stuffed up some high serve returns which was annoying; although when I did get it right with a down the tram smash, it did create a flummoxed response.
All in all, we had a lovely evening and I honestly don’t think the score lines could be any closer. The matches were really good fun and it was a very satisfying challenge, especially as we were able to take home a few wins to boot. Well done team!
Next up: From my point of view, we have a ladies pairs match at home on 6th February, so I fully expect some home support for me and Jess! Pom poms totally allowed.
