The Sonning team consisted of Himanshu, James and Cris. This was a late change to the order as Keith stood down. For Tilehurst it was the same 3 players we faced in December, being Jes Easom, Phil Jones and the very vocal Mark Bulion.

Himanshu led off against Jes who we know has been very successful this season. In the first two games Himanshu pushed Jes and only lost out 10-12 and 9-11. The third game was more straightforward for Jes as he took that 11-5. So first blood to Tilehurst.

Cris then took on Mark. Cris was delighted to take the first two games 11-8 and 12-10 but faltered in the third losing 9-11. Cris buckled down to take the fourth  11-2. This gave Cris a double over Mark.

James then faced Phil and whilst Phil likes to attack, so does James! James forehand was working exceedingly well and that is not to mention the backhand passes! James took the set in three games, 11-3, 11-8, 11-3. Thus, after the first round of singles Sonning led 2-1.

Next up was Cris and Jes. This was an extremely long five game set. Jes took the first game 11-8, Cris took the second 13-11. Cris then proceeded to fail to get a point in the third game before striking back to win the fourth 11-8. However, Jes built an early lead in game five and Cris never recovered, Jes winning 11-5 in the fifth.

Set 5 was Himanshu and Phil. I felt that Himanshu had a real chance of winning this set. However, with Phil attacking , Himanshu was not quite consistent enough and lost in three games, 6-11, 6-11, 7-11. So after 5 sets we were 3-2 down.

In Set 6 James levelled the score to 3-3 as he saw off Mark Bullion. Given both support Liverpool there was some frustration to unleash from James and Mark was just frustrated as he struggled to stay in touch!

Onto the doubles. James and Cris lined up against Jes and Phil. The Sonning pair started slowly and were 5-1 down before sorting themselves out to come back and win the first game 11-6. The second game Sonning took 11-7. Phil and Jes struck back to win the third as James and Cris threw away a 9-6 lead. Taking the set into a fourth,  James and Cris steadied the ship as we won the game 11-5. So Sonning take the lead 4-3.

The last round of singles. Cris faced Phil first. Phil took a close first game 11-13 and then a second more comfortably 11-7. Cris made a recovery in the third game winning 11-4, only to find himself 9-4 down in the fourth,  but somehow came back to win 11-9. I think Phil was somewhat shell shocked that the set was going to a fifth. Cris had a crucial edge in the fifth to take a 4-1 lead. We turned round at 5-1 and Cris took the game and set 11-4. There was disbelief from both James and Himanshu as nobody quite understood how Cris won that set! So Sonning were assured a draw at least!

Step up James to face Jes. Another titanic battle. It was looking as if James would win in three games taking the first two games 11-7 and 11-3. From memory James was 9-7 up in game 3 but managed to lose it 9-11. Game 4 saw both players working extremely hard. Jes returning almost everything that James threw at him. However, a couple of errors by James allowed Jes to take the game 11-13. So into the fifth we went! James took an early lead and never looked back winning 11-2 in the fifth! A great set played by both players. So a rare win for Sonning Sports C as we led 6-3.

The final singles saw Himanshu take on Mark. Himanshu took the first two games 11-9 and 14-12 much to the very obvious frustration of Mark who was becoming very vocal. Mark took the third game to reduce the arrears. The fourth game was tight up to  7-7 before Himanshu stretched a lead to 9-7 before Mark served 2 faults on service to give Sonning a 7-3 win.

For Sonning an important win which gets us off the foot of the table. We play Kingfisher on Monday night. They play Tidmarsh tomorrow night so we will know how many points we need to get out of the bottom two.

by Cris Reynolds