"Then shall those names, familiar in their mouths as household words, Jane and Gloster, be in their flowing cups freshly rememberéd..." (after Shakespeare, 'Henry V' Act 4 Scene 3)

On Mon, 1 Jul, HWCC sent a team of 4 to Harwell to represent the club in the SCF Doubles League (each pairing plays both of the opponent’s pairs twice).

That sentence was almost not possible due to the late notification of the illness of one of the intended team.  Thankfully Jane Gloster answered a desperate call - as the team was travelling to Harwell - and, changing her plans, making up the fourth member of the team.  The others were Keith Muras, Catherine Shore and Ian Shore.

Harwell offers 2 lawns on the outskirts of a cricket field.  The lawns had been mown closely that morning, so they were playing fast.  In addition, they had the undulations you could expect from such location, plus an unreliable surface particularly near some very loose hoops.

These conditions proved challenging for Jane and Ian, who dropped their first match, on the 13th.  Fortunately, Catherine and Keith adapted more quickly, winning both their morning matches.  Ian and Jane managed to recover, so that by lunch HWCC, was ahead by two games.    As the afternoon saw the both sides share the honours, the end result was 5:3 to HWCC.

Well done HWCC Doubles team and a special thank you to Jane for stepping into the breach! (Another Shakespeare reference!  Editor)

Ian Shore