The first team had a disappointing and frustrating start to the new winter season losing 2-3 to a strong Old Elthamians side. It could have been 3-2 or even 4-1..... but wasn’t.
Mick on court first, in-between lesson preparation and marking, looked rusty and lacking confidence. Two close games were followed by a more decisive 3-9 resulted in first blood to Old Elthamians and no points for Wildernesse.
Mark slept though his first game losing it 0-9 then picked up a gear to take the next, lose the third and then tin chances at game ball in the fourth eventually losing it 8-10 and the match. A close game with some excellent shots and probably a record number of hand-outs
Peter started slowly and inconsistently against Justyn winning just 1 point in the first, recovering to take the second, clawback the third from 2-7 down and then easily win the fourth after his opponent had broken his racket in frustration on the wall.
Chris had a good 5 setter against a strong No.3. and looked well back in it after squaring it at 2-2 in the fourth but when his opponent stepped up the pace in the 5th, Chris failed to stay with him and put away chances. Match over.
Rich looked fit and fast leaving no part of the court uncovered. Back-hand drops were better and with a bit more length on the forehand should do even better than a comfortable (albeit with some good long rallies) 3-0 win over an energetic Keith.
We won our first match of the season in a tight encounter with Sundridge Park. Peter Conway won fairly easily, beating Ian Dean at #2 despite losing the first game but Mark Johnson lost just as easily, to Andy Raby, at #4 after winning the first game. Mark was hampered by an injury he sustained at 7-6 in the second game and struggled after that.
Rich Oatey showed no mercy to Dave Port, at #1 and allowed his older opponent only a handful of points.
Bob Scott won 3 games very easily against Vince Grima, Sundridge Park's chairman, at #5 but, in between winning those games, he allowed the chairman to win a couple as well, making it into a close 5-setter.
Chris Skiller had trouble with his contact lenses and this meant that he didn't focus as well as he might have done against Simon Lewis at #3.
Chris appeared to take his eye off the ball at times and Simon needed no second invitation to hit winning shots. Although some of Chris' tactics could be described as short-sighted, he hung in well after going 0-2 behind, taking the 3rd game and pushing Simon in the 4th but, with 20-20 hindsight, that 0-2 deficit was too big a gap to bridge. So Chris can only look forward to next week and breaking his duck at #3.
Good food and good company as usual in the bar afterwards.
Mick looked very rusty against Peter Morgan with rallies comprehensively won by one or other but nothing inbetween. It’s just that Peter won more of them!
Mark was in fighting mood and with Kelvin tightening up in the 5th and tinning a number of unforced errors ran out a 9-1 (3-2) winner.
Harvey was slow out of the blocks against Gary always an awkward opponent with a good range of length and boast. Harvey managed to win the 3rd but disappeared again in the 4th. Game over!
Chris had a great tussle against Paul but surprisingly lost in 5 after going 2-0 up.
Peter was never in it against Keith (again), a lefty who mixes it rather than driving and wearing his opponent down. A chance in the second was not taken, 0-3 the end result.
Report to be added.
The less said about this match the better. A 0/5 defeat to follow our loss to the same team in the cup the previous week. We all lost 1/3 and nobody really looked like winning at any stage.
The first team bounced back from last week's 0/5 defeat to register a 5/0 win against Bexley.
Chris Skiller overcame the tantrums and occasional good squash play of Dean Nicholson to win 3/0 and get Wildernesse off to the perfect start.
Rich Oatey had his hands full at #1 against young Hanny Taleb but, after surviving 3 match balls in the 4th game, Rich closed out the match by winning the 5th game 9/0.
Bob Scott beat Selena Dagger 3/0 at #5 but the match was closer than the scoreline suggests. Selena had chances in all 3 games and had led 6/0 in the 3rd before Bob came back to win it 9/6 and clinch the points for Wildernesse.
With the match safely in the bag, old crocks Peter Conway and Mark Johnson could relax and play their natural games without having the pressure of having to win. Both won easily, Mark dropping only 3 points against Terry Ireland and Peter winning only marginally less convincingly against Adam at #2.
The win takes Wildernesse off the bottom of the ladder and, in a very even league, could be the start of our push for end-of-season honours.
We travelled to Bromley hoping to extend our recent run of success against the leisure centre side but came away with our tails between our legs and a 1/4 drubbing.
Bob Scott started promisingly at #5 against Mike Watts but, after winning the first game, Bob wasn't in the match as his opponent reeled off a string of winners to draw first blood for Bromley.
Peter Conway went 0/2 down against Garth, came back to make it 2/2 and then, just as we expected Peter to draw away and win the 5th, his calf muscle went and Garth won the decider 9/0.
Mark Johnson was in sparkling form against Rich Hailston at #4 and won 3/1.
Chris Skiller looked to have the match in the bag against Mike Schmidt at #3 as he served at 2/0 and 8/5 in the 3rd. A lucky nick saw Mike get the serve back and it was all downhill from there as Chris went on to lose 2/3.
Rich Oatey seemed to have left his mind in Nottingham and his body somewhere else as he went down 0/3 to Hylton Forrester in a very tame defeat. The Bromley man played well but Rich did not show what he is capable of.
Wildernesse thrashed an under-manned Bromley CC team 4/1.
Bob Scott (#5) and Rich Oatey (#1) started proceedings for Wildernesse and got us off to the perfect start. Bob lost only 6 points in despatching Mark Eams 3/0 and Rich scarcely broke sweat as he dropped only 5 points in exposing Andy Brackstone as a pretender at #1.
Mark Johnson had a good battle with Keith Hewes at #4 (Keith is the only player I have seen who looks in more pain than Mark on the squash court) but Mark's accuracy told in the end and he also won 3/0.
Peter Conway was 0/1 down before he knew it against Danny Sweeney and, although Peter came back to win the second game, Danny's form was too hot for Peter and the Bromley man won 3/1.
Chris Skiller was too steady for Jamie Salamon as he won 3/0 at #3, sealing a successful night for Wildernesse.
We journeyed to Tunbridge Wells hoping to draw inspiration from Shane Warne's and Ricky Ponting's mighty deeds in Adelaide but, unfortunately, came away resembling the England cricket team, beaten when we thought we had the measure of the opposition and with the captain nursing an injury.
Mark Johnson started well against Jeremy Hughes at #4 but, after winning the first game, fell 1/2 behind. Mark rallied in the 4th game but went down 8/10.
Chris Skiller also won his first game at #3 against Springbok Colin Hazell but Chris couldn't maintain the momentum and went down 1/3 as well.
Bob Scott and Paul Lush had a very close game at #5, with Paul just getting his nose in front after winning a marathon 3rd game 10/9. Unfortunately, Bob pulled a calf muscle in the closing rallies of that game and had to concede the match to Paul.
Peter Conway had to counter the clumsy, wild-swinging Canadian, Miles Montelius whose ungainly swipes at the ball and lumbering charges around court left Peter battered, bruised and fearful for his safety. In squash terms, Peter had no real problems as, despite dropping the 2nd game and faltering briefly in the 4th, he closed out the match 3/1.
Rich Oatey had a straightforward 3/0 win against Chris Beeching at #1.
The 1st team finished the first half of the season with a solid 4/1 win over Blackheath.
The evening started inauspiciously as Blackheath assembled up on the balcony whilst Rich Oatey and Peter Conway waited for them downstairs. Eventually, someone called the Blackheath players on their mobile to find out where they were, only to find they were upstairs! So we got underway a little later than we might have done!
Peter Conway was too good for Tom Ashton at #2, winning 3/0.
Bob Scott started well at #5 against Neil Harris, leading 2/0 and looking to be easing to victory. However, the Blackheath man came back strongly to take it to a 5th game and then raced to a 5/0 lead in the decider. But for a generous let decision, he may well have won 9/0 but eventually Neil won 9/5.
Mark Johnson looked to be off colour against Dave Mahon at #4 but, after losing a marathon first game 9/10, he battled hard and ground out an important 3/1 win.
At #3, Chris Skiller and Danny O'Brien slipped and slid their way around a dusty court, both players taking tumbles as Chris came back after losing the first game to win 3/1 and tie up the points for Wildernesse.
Rich Oatey and Chris Davies were locked at 1/1 in the final match when the rest of the teams decided we had better get down to the Crown to try out the new food and beer. Rich won through 3/1 to make it 19 points out of 20 on the night.
The first game of the New Year saw a solid win for Wildernesse.
Early signs were not encouraging, as Rob Piper, at 1 game all in a tight match at #5, tore his hamstring and had to retire. However, Peter Conway levelled the tie, winning his match against Justyn Perkins 3/0 at #2.
Bob Scott played Alex Pilz, an awkward Sth African who had previously played for Dulwich, at #4. The game score was 3-0 to Bob but each game went to 8/8, with Alex surprisingly calling set one in both the 1st and 3rd games.
Rich Oatey had little trouble winning the odd-numbered games at #1, but his opponent Keith Hibberd wasn't giving up easily as he took the 2nd and 4th games before Rich clinched the 5th game 9/0.
Chris Skiller had a hard game against Mehmet Yusuf at #3 but came through to win 3/1 in the end.
So, a 4/1 winning start to the second half of the season sees us up to 3rd in the table, albeit with a bit of work to do to catch the 1st or 2nd-placed teams.
With only 4 players, we needed to be at our sharpest to overcome old rivals Sundridge Park. Chris Skiller locked horns with Andy Raby at #3 but it wasn't Chris' night and, although he fought back well from match ball down to take the 4th game, the Sundridge man was just too strong in the 5th.
Bob Scott lost the first game to Ben Newark at #4, but recovered to win the next three fairly comfortably to give Wildernesse their first win of the night.
Harvey Branton went 0-2 down against Simon Lewis at #2 and was facing match ball in the 3rd game before he rallied and eventually came through 3-2.
Rich Oatey won through against Dave Port despite not being at his best. The third game was key and Rich won that 10-9 to take a 2-1 lead, which he turned into 3-1 thereby clinching the tie for Wildernesse.
Thanks to Ian Yates and the second team who loaned Harvey to us for the night. Harvey's contribution was crucial but it did mean that the second team were badly undermanned in their match at Park Langley.
We arrived at Old Elthamians confident of victory in our cup (plate) match. After all, we had a stronger team than the one that had won 4-1 in the league 2 weeks previously. However, Old Elthamians put up a good fight (almost literally in one match) and Wildernesse came through by the narrowest of margins.
Bob Scott came up against "occasional" Old Elthamian, Kirk Page, who reeled off a stream of winners as he raced to an early lead. Although Bob could have nicked the first game, going down 8-10; and possibly the third (which Kirk won 9-7), in the end 3-0 was a fair reflection of Kirk's domination.
Meanwhile, Harvey Branton also lost, 1-3, to Justin Perkins to give Old Eltham a 2-0 lead.
When Peter Conway lost the first two games against Beaux Bagels' Mehmet Yusuf; and Chris Skiller had gone down 9-10 in the first round of his on-court rumble against Alex Pilz, it looked all over bar the shouting.
However, Peter fought his way back to a 3-2 win and Chris managed to stay out of his opponent's way long enough to win the final 3 games (and, incidentally, provide entertainment for the Priory main committee who decided to pay a surprise visit on the night). This meant that it was 2-2 and all down to the final match.
Rich Oatey and Keith slugged it out in the first game, with a number of punishing rallies, punctuated by spectacular shots from Rich (winners and losers) and deft drop shots from Keith. Rich flung himself round the court in his eagerness to get to some shots, on one occasion finishing up flat on his face and on another falling over but getting up to hit a winning shot. Rich won that game 10-9 but lost the second after a string of errors. However, Rich gradually asserted himself and came through 3-1 to clinch the tie for Wildernesse.
With Chris Skiller injuring his foot in a football game and his replacement Tony Webb going AWOL, we had to make do with 4 players.
The match got off to an inauspicious start when Mark Johnson lost 0/3 at #3 to Kevin Ford (the first time Mark had lost to him apparently) and Bob Scott went 0/2 down and 5/7 down in the 3rd game to Tim Smith at #4. Fortunately for Wildernesse, Tim seemed to lose concentration and then tiredness took over as Bob finished the stronger of the two players, winning the 3rd game 9/7 and then taking the 4th and 5th to win 3/2.
Peter Conway blitzed Gary Jacobs 9/0 in the first game but let him back in with some careless play in the second and looked to be heading for a long struggle before putting his thinking cap on and realising that Gary wasn't likely to pick up too many drop shots. From 6/6 in the 3rd, Peter ran out a fairly comfortable winner 3/1.
Rich Oatey and Keith Ewin seemed to be fairly evenly matched, with Rich's athleticism being matched by Keith's range of shots. After trading blows for 4 games, the match was poised at 2/2 and it was a disappointing way for the match to end when Keith fell heavily at 3/3 in the 5th and had to retire, giving Rich victory 3/2.
So the 4-man squad came through again - another close match that has gone our way and we have now won our last 5 matches in a row and 7 out of our last 9. If we could get 5 fit players out each week we would be deadly.
The first team took on top side Tunbridge Wells, who had won 11 and lost 1 match up to this point of the season.
First up was Peter Conway, playing at #3, where he might have expected some easy points. Unfortunately, no-one had told his opponent, Neil Bradshaw, who gave Peter no chances as he won 3/0 with some very good squash.
Mark Johnson took on Nick Holmes at #4. Mark took the first game and, with Nick tweaking a muscle early on, it looked promising for Wildernesse. However, Nick tightened his bandages, decided that drop shots were the way to go, and came back to win 3/1, making it 2/0 to Tunbridge Wells.
Bob Scott knew what had to be done and he did it, winning comfortably 3/0 against Steve Luke at #5. The TW man grew increasingly frustrated as he failed to come to terms with the pace of the courts and made a number of unforced errors, making Bob's job much easier.
New guy Tony Webb gave a master class at #1. He took everything that Tunbridge Wells' Russell could throw at him and gave it back, with interest. The first game was characterised by long punishing rallies and, as Tony won the point to clinch it 10/8, Russell's head visibly dropped as he realised there was nothing he could do to get back in the match. Tony duly completed a 3/0 win, leaving the match poised at 2/2.
Meanwhile, Rich Oatey had built up a 2/0 lead at #2 against Martin of Tunbridge Wells. However, the benefits of Rich's training routines were soon apparent as he dropped the next two games to make it 2/2 with all the points depending on the result of the final match. Fortunately, Rich's determination saw him through as he won the game 9/3 and secured the points for Wildernesse.
A great result for us which means we are challenging for second place.