Knights vs Bishops Stortford

Knights vs Bishops Stortford

Silver Leys, Hadham Road, Bishops Stortford, Hertfordshire

After our evening in Lexden we caught a few extra hours of sleep at the Selby's before being treated to a filling breakfast and some much needed coffee from Karen. She also gave us a set of 'idiot proof' directions for us to get to the courts in Bishops Stortford, via an Asda petrol station. The petrol stations here compete on price and there are substantial differences between service station prices, so it's worth it for us to find the cheaper ones like Asda and avoid those off the motorway! On Karen's advice, we stopped at the Tip Tree jam factory store and bought a few Christmas gifts. Karen went out of her way to drop off the foam roller we had left behind at the factory, thanks! 

We got to Bishops Stortford in good time and met Nick Mulvey, who we would be playing later. A long warm-up was needed ahead of the night's matches which we knew would be close. The club had put together a team of young guys roughly our age and we'd built up a rivalry on twitter beforehand. 

5's and 1's went on first and it was Charl and Kyle up against Oli Dixon and Charlie Johnson on the 2 match courts. Charl won in 5 and Kyle in 4 with some good captaincy getting the wins where we needed them. Dan at 4 was outplayed in 3, as was Stef in the same number of games. The fixture came down to a brutal 5 setter between Michael and Tim Dixon. The night proved to be theirs as Tim came back from 9-6 down in the final game to win 12-10, it was a great game to watch with both players giving of their best. By that stage there was a full gallery and many cheers followed the match. Well done to Bishops Stortford for winning 3-2 and ending the Knight's winning streak.

After showering we had dishes of pasta and meat and reflected on the evenings matches. As we were all closely matched in age, we thought it would be cool to take on our opponents in a 'boat race' drink off competition with 'strawpedo's being the downing method. Both teams lined up with captains in front followed by the playing order of the night. The Knights comprehensively won this one with our team finishing all 5 before Stortford had gotten through their first 2, thanks to Charlie's not-so-great effort with his drink. We then went head to head with our individual opponents as Stortford got technical and whipped out stopwatches to time us while doing a shot and another strawpedo. Knights still managed a 4-1 win there...

Charlie and the others took us out on a night in town. We had a good night together but called it relatively early to try get some sleep at the courts where we spent the night. Stef and Dan, in search of a late night snack for the team, set off the alarm at the courts and made sleeping near impossible until Kyle and Nick Mulvey got back an hour later and switched it off. 

We awoke to the sound of racket ball and locker room conversations and thought it best to leave soon with our reputation still intact!