Who would have thought a TT match would be affected by an Israel/Palestine protest?

Well this one was.

Two of the Nordwest players drive to matches and whilst others managed to make
their ways through the protest via public transport, Albert and Ryhan were caught
in the traffic issues which resulted in a rather strange match from an order point of view.

Meanwhile Castaways were again having player availability issues and so used their
seventh player of the season, Norman Grant, who only recently returned to playing
TT after a health lay off and is perhaps yet to recover his form.

Grace gamely said she would play her three straight off if needed and so it proved
though in doing so Grace won her first singles of the season beating Norman in a
tense five legger where Grace ran away with the fifth.
Johnny and Neil managed to win their games against Grace three straight.

Albert arrived as Grace finished and immediately went on against Johnny who took
no chances and raced to a three straight win.
Albert then had a five legger with Norman and won from two legs down.
Albert’s final game was against Neil, and he’s always been a bit of a boogie player
for Neil and so it proved in the first leg with Al taking it to 3.
Neil then came back and returned the favour winning to 3 as well.
The third leg was probably pivotable with Neil coming back from 9-4 down to be 10-9 up
but then missed the chance to take the leg. Luckily, he then took it at 12-10. The
fourth was nip and tuck but then Neil was well up but Albert came back and almost
got there before Neil took it to 9.

As if by design Ryhan (with the all-important refreshments!) turned up during the last
of Albert’s games and took to the table to play his three straight off – is this unique,
all three players playing three straight off?

His first game against Johnny was a cracker and TBH honest could have gone either
way in a five-leg thriller, but Johnny won out on the fifth.
Rhyan then proved too strong for Norman to win three straight.
The final singles was Rhyan against Neil and perhaps Neil’s lefthanded play
plus his rather (completely?) unorthodox style confused Rhyan as Neil won in four.

The doubles paired Grace and Albert against Johnny and Neil, and the latter proved
too strong and won in three. A 7 3 win for Castaways which wasn’t quite as
straightforward as the scoreline might suggest.

Above all else though a really fun match with much enjoyment on both sides no
matter the score!