Club night (13) - new faces

Good workout at club night last night, with three new faces. All were good players, one visiting from France, a leftie with clay stained shoes and heavy topspin; another a former player returning to the game; and the last a Greek lady who I have played doubles against on previous occasions. My judgement was that they all have a more advanced game than mine but not by a lot.

I played singles and doubles against the two men and tried to analyse the difference. The lefties topspin serve was difficult to cope with because of the angle and curve it was coming over the net, and his heavy topspin groundstrokes were also a challenge. The other guy just had a good heavy serve, and once I got a return back and was in the point I was able to play against him OK.

My conclusion was that my game was almost up to theirs but I need to adjust and cope with the extra pace and spin. All part of the learning to advance to a new level and I came away quite heartened.

Attendance was down a bit, not sure if this is because of the holiday season or because the football season has started.