Murrayfield VI

• Charlie Ellis 3
• Jake Cullen 1
• Ian Robertson 0

North Merchiston V

• Ying Jin 2
• Robbie Fairley 2
• Anthony To 1

Team 6’s promotion chances suffered a major blow as they lost to a young and talented North Merchiston side.
The evening began well with Charlie producing one of his best performances in overcoming Ying Jin in 5 tight sets: 11-6, 6-11, 11-9, 8-11, 11-8 (Ying’s 1st defeat of the season). Their entertaining match included several excellent points, with Charlie retrieving well but also scoring with his own attacking strokes. In the 2nd match, Jake played solidly but struggled to cope with Robbie’s topspins and lost in three.

Then, in what proved to be the key game of the evening, Ian lost to their third player Anthony. Anthony had improved markedly from the first fixture in September and dominated the match with good serving and third-ball attacks. After losing the 1st two games (including the 2nd 11-13) Ian threatened a comeback in taking the third game but his tentative returns gave Anthony too many chances in the 4th.

The 2nd set of games were all one-sided 3-setters. Jake played some excellent defence against Ying but went down in three; Charlie did enough to beat Anthony and Ian was well beaten by a fluent Robbie. With Murrayfield 2-4 down, Any realistic chance of a drawn match lay with the doubles. Despite some determined play, Charlie and Ian lost 11-9, 11-9, 11-8, with Ying and Robbie’s return of serve proving decisive.

Jake then produced his best form in overcoming a 0-2 deficit against Anthony in a match that began scrappily but ended with several excellent rallies (5-11, 9-11, 11-8, 13-11, 11-9).
This left Ian with the difficult task of beating Yin to keep the game alive. Against a somewhat distracted Ying, Ian began to find his form and leveled the match at 1-1. He also had chances in the 4th but an edge ball from Ying at 10 all was decisive. In the final ‘dead’ rubber (not a reference to Charlie's bat!) Charlie struggled against Robbie’s serve and was a bit fortunate to take a scrappy match in 4 sets.

Match Played: 3/2/10 at North Merchiston (a postponed match: Murrayfield were officially the home team).