Sphinx 2 (Away) - Tuesday 27/4/2010

Result:3-1 Win

Team:Steve Ray & Charlie Rickard; Graham Hollway & Rob Yates

Firstly thanks to Graham who stood in as a late replacement for Chester.

Having played the night before for the 4th team (coincidently also against Sphinx) could my body copy with two games in 24 hours!

There was a sense of deja vu from the previous evening as Steve & Charlie went 0-3 down in the 1st set against their 2nd pair. Again this position was recovered to pinch the set 7-5 but this time the momentum was maintained as we took the 2nd set with relative comfort.

Rob & Graham had a very competitive rubber against 2 Coventry University students. After taking the 1st set, Rob & Graham used all of their experience to come from behind to edge the 2nd set and one of those rare occasions when both rubbers finished at exactly the same time!

Rob & Graham duly went on to beat the Sphinx 2nd pair, leaving Steve & Charlie to see if the team could get the clean sweep by beating their 1st pair! It was a competitive rubber with some excellent rallies but we were always playing catch up throughout both sets and we were eventually beaten to the finish line.

Nevertheless we would have settled for a 3-1 victory at the start of play, so an excellent start to the season. One down, 13 to go!

Steve Ray

Warwick Boat Club 4 (Home) - Monday 3/5/2010

Result:4-0 win (no show)

Team:Mark Walker & Savio Gaspar; Mike Jones & Rob Yates.

Unfortunately Warwick Boat Club failed to show up at Hampton on Monday night!

This is one of the fixtures affected by an original error in the handbook as issued by the league, but following consultation with Frank Wilson he was of the view that we had done everything that should reasonably have been expected and "Boat Club has no reason to expect the match to be re-arranged".

Whilst the preference is to play and win 4-0, Frank is not a person to argue with so we have claimed the 4-0 walkover!

Thanks to Mark Walker, Savio Gaspar (the only match he can make this season!), Mike Jones and Rob Yates for turning up on a Bank Holiday.

Extra gratitude to Mike Jones who went to the trouble of preparing the match supper, and normally Mike's match suppers are not to be missed!!

Additional note from Savio: Mikes supper ( scampi ,chips and cheesecake!) was thoroughly enjoyed by our family , the girls especially liked the dessert so every cloud..........!!

Cheers
Savio

Steve Ray

Beechwood 5 (Away) - Friday 14/5/2010

Result:2-2 Draw

Team:Jonny Hunt & Chester Barnes; Nigel Jones & Rob Yates

Some great tennis played by both teams with both Hampton pairs beating the Beechwood second pair, albeit Jonny & Chester having a tie break in the 1st set and Nigel & Rob resorting to a 3rd set tie break!

The Beechwood 1st pair were a tougher nut to crack but they were run close by both Hampton pairs with Chester & Jonny particularly disappointed to lose a 2nd set tie break from 6-4 up that would have lead to the lottery of the Championship tie-break. Not the best outcome, but watching from the sidelines there was some quality tennis played in a very high calibre match!

Nevertheless the 3rd team unbeaten run continues - 2 wins and now a draw......

Steve Ray

Berkswell 3 (Home) - Monday 17/5/2010

Result:2-2 Draw

Team:TBA

TBA

Berkswell 4 (Away) - Monday 24/5/2010

Result:2 - 2 Draw

Team:Jonny Hunt and Steve Ray, Rob Yates and Nigel Jones

Last week we staged a terrific comeback against Berkswell 3 with Steve & Rob winning a dramatic 3rd set tie break 14-12 against their 1st pair that contained at least one Berkswell 2 player.

This week we played Berkswell 4 but there were strange goings on!

Berkswell 3 were at home on the same night but rather bizarrely the Berkswell 3 team (against Sphinx) was a lot weaker than the Berkswell 4 team playing us with a member of their 1st pair last week supplemented by a player who openly admitted to normally playing Berkswell 1 and 2, although the standard of his play was more the latter! We think that privately they were more than a bit disappointed that they didn't win last week and were still smarting....

Jonny Hunt & Steve Ray played as the 1st pair but, despite playing well, the Berkswell pair were stronger although at 4-4 in the 2nd set at least we gave them a bit to think about before going down 6-2 6-4.

Rob Yates & Nigel Jones managed to nick the 1st set in their match on a tie break before winning the 2nd set more comfortably.

Hence, so long as the form book was maintained the odds were on a draw.

Having play pretty well in the 1st rubber despite losing, Jonny & Steve were confident and completely relaxed in the 2nd rubber and had a bit of fun in winning 6-0 6-2.

Rob & Nigel put up a brave fight in their reverse rubber but the heroics of the previous week couldn't be repeated!

Whilst Berkswell 4 didn't lose, the overall tactic backfired as Berkswell 3 did lose 3-1 to Sphinx!

Another week goes by without defeat - it's now 2 wins and 3 draws.

Steve Ray

Leamington 6 (Away) - Tuesday 8/6/2010

Result:4 - 0 Win

Team:Jonny Hunt & Steve Ray; Nigel Jones & Rob Yates

As Leamington were bottom of the table having only won 2 rubbers from their first 5 fixtures and with us joint 2nd, we went there expecting victory and that's what we got!

However, the standard of their first pair was much better than we were expecting and they took the first set against Jonny & Steve 6-3. Hampton hit back to take the 2nd set 6-3 and so it was down to the 3rd set tie break (again)! Leamington regained their momentum in the tie break and at 5-9 down the dreams of a 4-0 victory were virtually over, or were they!! We clawed our way back to 9-9 but then went 9-10 before taking it in dramatic fashion 12-10! Whilst the quality of the tennis wasn't quite as high as the 14-12 victory achieved by Steve & Rob against Berkswell a couple of weeks back, the drama of it was probably greater leaving the opposition absolutely gutted!

Nigel & Rob beat the Leamington 2nd pair who were more the standard we were expecting to be facing! Jonny & Steve similarly beat the 2nd pair in reasonably quick time [before Rob & Nigel had finished the 1st set of their 2nd rubber].

So 3 rubbers on the board; could Rob & Nigel beat their 1st pair?

They edged a very close 1st set 7-5 but then lost the 2nd set so it was down to another 3rd set tie break! Not sure how Rob & Nigel felt but, stood on the sidelines, Jonny & Steve were absolutely convinced we would win. Following the events earlier in the evening, the opposition looked beaten in the tie break before they had even started. Rob tried to prove us wrong by starting the tie break with a double fault (sorry for mentioning that Rob) but Hampton took the next 5 points in succession and subsequently closed out the match quite comfortably!

Well played guys!

Steve Ray

Coventry and North Warwicks 3 (Home) - Monday 14/6/2010

Result:3 - 1 Win

Team:Jonny Hunt & Chester Barnes; Nigel Jones & Rob Yates

A good win that was almost a 4-0 but unfortunately Nigel & Rob lost out in a 3rd set tie break in the final rubber against their first pair!

The halfway stage of the season has been reached and the 20 points gained from the 7 matches represent an excellent tally that will certainly put us in one of the top two positions and, if repeated in the 2nd half of the season, would guarantee promotion!

The league tables still only show the positions after 5 matches where we were 2 points adrift of the leaders Sphinx but with our last 2 results being a 4-0 and a 3-1 we must be running them close

Steve Ray

Sphinx 2 (Home) - Monday 21/6/2010

Result:3 - 1 Win

Team:Graham Hollway & Steve Ray; Rob Yates & Nigel Jones

A good result but, to be fair, Sphinx were nowhere near as strong as the first match of the season now that the Coventry University students have returned home!

Graham was having to carry a bit of a passenger tonight with the skipper not having one of his better nights, particularly in the first rubber! We lost the first set and although we convincingly won the 2nd set 6-1 the 3rd set tie break didn't go our way! Sorry Graham!

Meanwhile Rob & Nigel had a very close battle against the Sphinx 2nd pair eventually winning 7-6 6-4.

I was a bit more consistent in the second rubber [but with Graham still doing more than his fair share] as we won reasonably comfortably 6-2 6-2.

So it was down to Rob & Nigel to do what Steve & Graham should have done and beat their first pair. It was a classic game of momentum swing as Hampton took the first set 6-2 but then lost the 2nd by the same score. As a team we don't do easy wins, so it was all down to the 3rd set tie-break but the momentum changed again with Rob & Nigel triumphing 10-5; a win that improved the mood of the captain no end!

So over the last two weeks we have beaten the two teams that, together with us were joint top of the league after 6 fixtures.

Special mention for Rob Yates in playing 8 successive fixtures - normally we are lucky if he does that many all year! However, he does have a diary clash next week - can he organise himself to keep the run going?

Steve Ray

Warwick Boat Club 4 (Away) - Tuesday 29/6/2010

Result:2 - 2 Draw

Team:Jonny Hunt & Matt Hunt; Mike Jones & Steve Ray

A beautiful venue, an excellent match supper and, overall, a pretty good result to preserve our unbeaten record!

Warwick Boat put out a pretty strong team fielding 2 county veterans and a "last minute substitute due to late withdrawal" who was arguably the best player of their four.

However Jonny & Matt were on fire tonight, regularly hitting the lines (instead on the back fence!!).

Despite the quality of the opposition, Jonny & Matt only conceded 8 games all evening; a fantastic performance (they played so well they were accused, in a polite way, of being far too good for this Division which was a bit rich given their team).

Mike and Steve played to a reasonable standard. In both matches they had their chances in very tight first sets that on each occasion reached 4-4 before the standard and consistency of the opposition eventually made the difference.

Steve Ray

Beechwood 5 (Home) - Monday 5/7/2010

Result:4 - 0 Win

Team:Jonny Hunt & Chester Barnes; Mike Jones & Steve Ray

We turned up tonight expecting a really tough match, as I believe that by the end of the season Beechwood and Warwick Boat will be our closest challengers for promotion.

The Beechwood faces were all familiar foes and after 45 minutes things were all finely balanced Jonny & Chester at 5-5 in their first set and Nigel & Steve had clawed their way back from 0-3 to force a tie break in their first set.

The tie break wasn't going according to plan at 3-6 down but then the complexion of the whole evening changed. Steve & Nigel won 5 consecutive points to steal the tie break and at the same time Jonny & Chester took the last two games of the first set to take that 7-5.

The rest of the evening was remarkable for the surprising ease with which we won, with the Hampton boys just playing good solid tennis!

TBA

Berkswell 3 (Away) - Monday 12/7/2010

Result:2 - 2 Draw

Team:Jonny Hunt & Matt Hunt; Nigel Jones & Rob Yates

In spite of the best endeavours by Berkswell 3, who have been quickly climbing the table over the last few weeks, our unbeaten record has been preserved but it was a close run thing!

Every time we play Berkswell, Graham (their skipper) seems to find a better partner to play with [he also played for Berkswell 4 against us].

Fortunately, we had Matt & Jonny in our side tonight and they were strong enough to win both their rubbers. The second rubber was 11-9 in a 3rd set tie-break, recovering from 0-5 down!

(Jonny got a bit excited and started celebrating at 9-9 and Matt claimed he was more focused after hearing Nigel say to Rob that we were about to lose the match 3-1 and with that lose our unbeaten record - good psychology Nigel, you can be captain next year with those motivational skills!!).

Not such a great night on court for Rob & Nigel this evening (and a good match for the captain to have a rest!) but no worries; given where we are in the league a 2-2 draw is a good result.

Steve Ray

Berkswell 4 (Home) - Monday 19/7/2010

Result:TBA

Team:TBA

TBA

Leamington 6 (Home) - Monday 26/7/2010

Result:TBA

Team:TBA

TBA

Coventry and North Warwicks 3 (Away) - Thursday 5/8/2010

Result:TBA

Team:TBA

TBA