What a night, what a match!

I’d defy anyone to have predict how the results in this match would go! The hero from two weeks ago getting an egg; Mike Loveder making his debut for Castaways and winning two; Mike, Neil, and Norman, all winning two but then losing their unbeaten doubles record. 

The evening started with a classic 5 legger between the Captains and at 9-9 in the fifth it was anyone’s – you wouldn’t have predicted John putting two returns of service straight in the net to give Neil the win! 1-0 

Norman then beat Jai three straight with Jai not really knowing what was happening. 2-0 

With Ronnie still to arrive Mike took on John and despite John sneaking the first leg (with an outrageous edge) Mike came back to win the next three, though with strange scores of 10, 3, and 10! 3-0 

Castaways in control? Well, not quite as Ronnie made his appearance count with a destruction of Norman 3, 5, and 10. 3-1 

Neil then played Jai and found his counter-hitting and fast play just far too much to deal with and went down in four. 3-2 

Ronnie then showed his worth again and despite previous losses to Mike he had an emphatic win in four. 3-3 and all to play for.

Could John continue the resurgence, or would Norman re-start the Castaways efforts? It turned out to be the latter with Norman inflicting John’s third loss of the night three straight, a fairly rare occurrence (Richard?), especially with both teammates outscoring him. 4-3 

Normally the Neil/Ronnie games are fairly close but perhaps Neil was still smarting from his loss to Jai as he ran out a very quick winner, 4, 6, and 1. 5-3 and the draw achieved. 

Mike then took on Jai and found his style very, very awkward but managed to work him out (and see the ball enough) to come back from 1-0 down to win 3-1. 6-3 and the home win achieved 

Surely the doubles would be a formality given Castaways haven’t lost one so far this season and the egg holder was playing for PRO? Nope, in another twist although Neil and Norman scraped the first leg, they went down on five to make the result 6-4, well done John and Ronnie though a very, very strange game 11, -5, -8, 5 and -5. 

 Not quite the result either team hoped for but in the end perhaps a fair reflection of the evening and of course it was discussed at length in the Speaker post-match – really liked the India Pale Ale from Derbyshire!