With a last win on 15th November, it was high time that Chantry brought their 7 match losing streak to an end against Gosling, sitting just below us in the table.

Chantry’s fortunes and appetites weren’t helped when Vinnie ‘Chef’ Tram pulled out at the last moment (unusually he had a good excuse, so won’t get the normal abuse).  Luckily James stepped up to the plate to fill in and was first on court as string 5 against John.

James hasn’t, shall we say, got the best stats in the team; so it was to some surprise that he came out of the blocks firing on all cylinders and took the first game very comfortably 15-7.  The second game saw James revert to his normal headless-chicken approach but still managed to hold on to take the second 16-14.  Now with his confidence sky high the quality of the first game re-emerged and he closed it out 15-9 for James’s first ever 3-0 win in a team game.  Well played James!

With Chef’s withdrawal, Will was promoted to 4th string and was up against Nick Catt. Clearly, Chantry were in no mood to mess around tonight as Will quickly put Nick to the sword in another comprehensive victory – 15.9, 15-13, 15-12.

A good start by Chantry and that was continued by Mark in yet another easy 3-0 victory, this time over Jon Noonan.  It appears that Chantry have finally stopped the rot – maybe they’re taking Vinh’s absence as an opportunity to try to dislodge him at the top of the stats?

Victory is already assured before Paul takes to the court against Sid Newbon.  Would this be a repeat of the cracking match in the reverse fixture? Which Sid took 3-2 after Paul ran out of steam in the fifth.  Paul certainly started like the other guys, taking the first game 15-6.  It’s all looking easy as Paul pulls into a lead in the 2nd too but then he relaxes and Sid comes back, starting to find some form and before long Paul has dropped the first game of the night 14-16.  A good talking to in the break has the necessary effect and Paul picks up the pace again to win the last two games 15-13, 15-6.

So it’s all down to Capt Carl to make it a clean sweep and a maximum 20 points for Chantry – sorely needed after that long losing run.  Unfortunately for Carl, the Gosling #1 is Adam (who, bizarrely, played Vinh at #4 in the reverse fixture as they were both coming back from injury).  Adam’s certainly not injured now and Maybe Carl can’t wait for the pizza to arrive he can’t get close to him and crashes to a 3-0 loss, barely troubling the scorers on the way.   Much muttering about what’s the point of all the coaching as the teams wait for the pizza to arrive.  Nowhere near as good Vinnie’s promised Ginger Ninja Chicken would have been!