Aberdeen 1 v Edinburgh 2. With players at a premium, we looked above and below. Above us, I found Pranav Walia, the second best player of Indian origins in the club – behind serial Facebook friend request merchant Uday Jain. Looking below, I found Rupert McCreery. Zach Stearns talked Rupert up so much that I told Aberdeen’s 88 year-old tennising legend, Rob Ainsley, that Pete Sampras was playing at 4. Rob reckoned Pete would struggle against Aberdeen’s Mihai; 7-6 6-7 7-6 to Aberdeen predicted the wisest old sage in tennis. With our train due to leave at 9:28, it was useful that when the EULTC elders set off in a taxi about 9:10 – to go and meet Rupert at Waverley – our taxi driver was aware that Forrest Road was closed. Sadly, he headed straight for Forrest Road. Niall Hope was livid; he took his racket and a ball out his bag and hit a serve at the driver’s head – who even does that? Sadly, we missed our train. Rupert was wondering what kind of disorganised bunch he had joined for the day. The extra hour gave the team a chance to go for some serious food shopping. The best purchase was made by young McCreery – although with the facial hair he’s got going on; he could easily pass for being 6 years my senior – the 3rd teamer was drawn to the Pomegranate section of M&S, he bought a massive tray. He was later disappointed to learn that President’s Merry description of them being ‘crap seeds’ proved to be correct. It was soon time for our next stab at getting on a train. Niall’s captaincy has moved with the times, he was clutching a new ‘Friends Fare’ ticket saving our group £85. Too easy. Sadly in big letters it says: ‘Scotrail Trains Only’ on the ticket, the 10:30 was very much an East Coast train. We asked a guard who said we’d have to buy singles on board, this could have been very price: “Gin Henman is paying for this”, mused Niall. Fortunately, Pranav’s smile on presenting our friends ticket completed Niall Hope’s East Coast heist; the ticket inspector had been deceived. Free to travel in style, we took comfort in the fact that the East Coast service to Aberdeen is free from Scotrail’s customers who can sometimes spend most of their journey uncontrollably pissing up the walls or singing about Rangers players from 2007. Arriving in Aberdeen, we were met by their usual suspects – the top 4 of 88 year-old Rob Ainsley, Cammy Nicol, Rickard Strand and Mihai. Rupert was absolutely thrilled about the prospect of meeting the heroes he had read about in my reports. We were late, so got started straightaway. Niall and Pranav played Cammy and Rob, now in their third year of first couple doubles for Aberdeen. Rob and Cammy played a blinder; they combined Cammy’s huge serve with Rob’s wealth of experience. Despite a decent performance from our boys, they lost 4 and 1. Pranav also took a really heavy blow to the chest from a wild Cammy Nicol forehand; he got straight back up and sarcastically said: yeh, good shot. I played singles against Rickard. I should have won the second set but lost some key points, even missed an easy volley. Went down 2 and 5. Rupert played Mihai, a Romanian (or maybe some kind of Spanish) who beat The Crofter earlier in the season in a very tight match. On fast courts, Rupert and Mihai became engaged in a big-hitting encounter. Sadly, Mihai played the big points better and found himself 7-6, 5-4 up serving for the match. However, Rupert clawed himself back into it and took set 2 to another breaker. He again lost a tight one. 7-6 7-6. Maybe the fact that Mihai foot-faults by about a yard on every serve swung the match? Who knows? Round 2, we were 6-0 down. Pranav faced an 88 year-old who is undefeated in Scottish BUCS tennis this season. Rob played really well hitting his forehand better than normal. He put our first teamer away 6-3 6-1. Tough. Niall was probably was involved in the match of the day, a big serving contest with Aberdeen number 2 Cammy Nicol. There was one break in the whole match and one very close tiebreak. Sadly, these both went against Niall and he went down 6-4 7-6 (6). Niall did play pretty well; he put it all down to the captaincy of Alex Hornsby last week: “he just gets me man, he’s an inspiration”. Rupert and I went on for our doubles against Rickard and Mihai. After teaching Darby a doubles lesson at Braid the night before, I was confident we’d win. Rupert served well and guided by my doubles experience and sharp volleying we won 6-3 6-4. One break in each set, a 2nd gear cruise – blast and roll. Rupert hit an outrageously big forehand on match point, even Rob Ainsley was cheering. Well played, mate! We lost overall 10-2. We went to Bob’s Inn for a match tea of chicken nuggets and curly fries. I’m not allowed to eat chicken nuggets, but I doubt my mum will ever read this. At match teas, Rob relishes the chance to meet new-comers to University tennis, Rupert looked on incredulously as Rob recalled some of Rupert’s scores from the year. He focused heavily on the time Rupert lost to Ryan Wesson 7-6 6-1 despite being 4-0 up: were you actually at the match? asked Rupert. I was pleased to see Rob live up to hype I created. We headed back to the station, conveniently located adjacent to the Union Square shopping centre, we collected a pizza hut meal deal and dined on our allotted train on the way back to Edinburgh. We listened to Pranav tell stories about ‘Robin Thickle’ – I let it go twice before I was compelled to point it out that ‘Thickle’ was not the correct surname. With a quiz on the horizon, Niall thought about a new game where teams would have to come up with a ‘pointless answer’ when asked to name a player from each of EULTC’s 6 teams. They say only Andrew Merry and Hayyu Imanda can name them all. And so that was that from the tennis. This has always been my favourite fixture of the season. Taking our longest trip for the third consecutive year in a row, I thought back to times I’ve enjoyed this match with guys like Kev Breen, Cammy Whytock and Finlay Hutchison. Memories about hurricane simulators, my double-fault at 8-9 in a tiebreak against Rob and Cammy will soon fade completely from the club. However, Rupert and Pranav are young and they’ll take this trip with them through their remaining tennising time – and maybe pass on the odd story, the odd name; the symmetry of coming and going will continue. Enjoy the last few weeks guys, whether you’re a beginner or a 1st team player, EULTC is used as an environment to spend time with other people, have fun yourself and be part of something bigger. I’ll miss these days when they’re gone; I’ll relish the final few. Merry.
Posted on: Thu, 27 Feb 2014 16:45:44 +0000
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