Bloemenlust/TTV Amstelveen vs Villepreux/SQYPING Exchange Match
Last Friday, 15 May, 10 players from ATC Bloemenlust and TTV Amstelveen travelled to France for a friendly match against Villepreux/SQYPING.
From Bloemenlust: Bart, Karel, Dirk and Danny. From Amstelveen: Arjan, Ladi, Sheila, Jeffrey, Guus and Brian. Monique (Brian’s wife) and Monique (Arjan’s wife) came along as supporters.
By Friday afternoon, everyone had arrived safely at our B&B and in the evening we all had a lovely meal together; Hervé was there too.
It was great fun, very convivial and, above all, the karaoke was unforgettable.
The matches began just after half past ten; we played with two teams of five.
That made a total of 50 matches over 10 rounds, so we played on five tables, with standard rules: best of five to 11.
Jeffrey started the first round against the strongest French player, Sylvain, and managed to win the match 11-9 in the fifth game after a hard-fought battle.
Danny was in Team 1 for the first time and managed to win a five-game match against, I think, Damian.
Brian and Arjan found it particularly tough against Olivier, who plays with short pimples on his forehand, but both still managed to win the fifth game comfortably.
Ladi played well, but with mixed results. With a troublesome calf, he had to withdraw from the final match.
Fortunately, we had a French substitute, Yann, who managed to win his match against Damian (which later proved to be very important!)
Karel, our debutant, had his work cut out for him; he managed to force Hervé into a fifth game but unfortunately came away empty-handed.
Guus and Dirk also picked up some points, and I saw them regularly battling it out over five games.
A first: for the first time in 15 years, we managed to win this (friendly) match!
Hervé had arranged a lovely prize, which Brian gratefully accepted.
After freshening up, we all got together for a barbecue.
It was chilly but thankfully stayed dry.
Bart handed out the bag of ‘Dutch products’ to all the French players and, of course, to substitute Yan, who perhaps scored the most important point.
It was another fantastic weekend and we’re already looking forward to next year when the French team comes to visit us.
Thank you all for a lovely weekend.
