GB VETS
TOUR TO
17/18
NOVEMBER 2007.
What
started as a small 5 man team of Kent GB Vets players ended up as a 10 man
team, which included a number of
Most
had braved the Easyjet flights down to Nice airport on
the Friday in readiness for a practice session at the Antibes Squash and
Fitness Centre in the early evening. This was much needed since the courts
appeared a lot faster off the front wall and it took a while to adjust to the
ball coming off the back wall due to the dark carpet behind.
The
main matches took place on the Saturday. We could see before we started that we
could have quite a fight on our hands since the opposition didnt appear to
possess any grey hairs! We worked out that our average age was 63 whilst theirs
was around half that!
There
were some very close and also some rather one sided matches, the latter
unfortunately in
The
highlights started with our No.1, Steve Rudd doing battle with the Club coach,
Guillaume, Steve eventually succumbing 1/3. Dave Leach (No.2) and Geoff Howes
(No.5) both had hard games and notched up wins for the GB Vets, 3/2 and 3/1
respectively.
Barry
Skelding (No.6) and Nigel Belle (No.7) had great 5 setters but both just lost
in the fifth.
The
real nail biting game was Martin Pearse (No.3) who was up against the French
O50s No.1. The result was not certain until the very last point which Martin
won 10/9 in the fifth. At that point entente cordiale went out of the window
with the defeated Frenchman throwing his racket all over the place and storming
off court not a pretty sight!
Messrs.
Adrian Wright (No. 4), Chas Stevens (No.8), Derek Tullett (No.9) and Ray Rook
(No.10) all succumbed to rather young, fit Frenchman so that the overall match
result was a win for the French 7-3.
Many
of the GB Vets ladies Julie (Leach), Chris (Howes), Carol (Stevens) and
Gloria (Saunders) took to the courts and played many games of squash and
racketball.
Saturday
evening saw some 20 of us players, wives, partners
descend on an excellent restaurant in Juan Les Pins. The wine flowed freely and
soon our battered bodies and morale were back to normal.
Squash
on the Sunday consisted of doubles matches 7 pairs, one game per match up to
15, therefore 6 games in all for everyone exhausting fun!
The
Antibes Squash Club, run by Clive and Debbie Stokes, put on an excellent buffet
supper in the evening. Nigel Belle for the GB Vets thanked them both for a very
well organised, thoroughly enjoyable weekend and presented Debbie with a plaque
and an Anniversary Book signed by all the players.
Our
thanks also went to Derek and Jonathan Tullett for organising and liaising with the Antibes Club.
We
all said our good byes and disappeared into the relatively (by