Middleton v Fishbourne – Away – Sunday 21 September – 3 mixed pairs

The sunny clime and calm skies were an auspicious background to Fishbourne’s fight to recapture club pride in a return friendly against Middleton.

Team captain Luke McEwen chose three strong mixed pairs for this latest match following a heavy defeat the previous month when Middleton visited Fishbourne.

Two champions from the recent club competition – Katy Bracher (ladies) and Luke (with Bill Cove in the men’s doubles) were drafted in to give Fishbourne an impressive line-up of Angie Hall and Chris Gosden, Luke and Katy and regular pairing Mo Gray and Andre Rogers.

After three hours’ play, Fishbourne emerged winners by 8 sets to 4 – despite Chris having to dust off his racquet and Luke not finding any flow with any of his three serving styles.

With such strong pairings, it soon became apparent that Middleton’s tactic of “playing on the girl” would not work against our ladies’ champion and her two equally adept colleagues.

Luke praised his team’s effort and also mentioned one of the Middleton players, a schoolgirl called Olivia, who he said had “arguably the most stylish forehand and sliced top spin serve of all of us!”

Middleton provided a splendid tray of sandwiches which were enthusiastically devoured outside in the south coast sunshine.

The next match is on Sunday 28 September against Southsea.