Puky Poopdale Pooped

by Caviar Nick


Talent scouts gathered aplenty for the 3rd Rd clash of the Roosters Summer season (or maybe they were just people lying in grass enjoying a beautiful Spring day). We'd had 1 win from 2 matches so this was an important 3rd round clash and our opponents were the old foe from Parkdale.

This was the team that cruelled the Roosters finals run in the last Winter season. Perry and his gifted backhand were both there, Barry and his wily ways at the net too.

But we had some talent of our own including debutant Rooster Sean ("Masterclass") Collins, recruited cleverly over the off season from Port Melbourne TC, Nick H (aka Black Caviar) back from pasture for his first run of the season, "rock steady" Peter J and Mark "massive first serve -aka "MFS" Balicki.

At 1pm, Sean and Nick were the only 2 players at the club and that awful "are we in the right spot" feeling had started to creep in when Rodney from Parkdale showed up. So that feeling then quickly moved onto "where the hell is everyone" else? But this time did allow Nick and Sean to craft the long term vision of the day and pairings were squared away with Masterclass & Rock Steady and Black Caviar with MFS.

And these combinations reaped great reward. After Black Caviar and MFS had packed in an entire pre-season's training into the 10 minute warm-up including a hand / arm congrats system of "torchlight USA style", this was enough to demolish their opponents 6-2 6-1.

It also then allowed them to sit down and enjoy the high quality battle taking place on court 1. It got to 1 set a piece and the 3rd set was tough, but Masterclass and Rock Steady prevailed to put the Roosters 2 rubbers up. Many observers saw that win as a triumph of talent, consistency and superior fitness that our boys over the line, but questions may be asked as to whether Rock Steady's shirt change at the start of the 3rd set also played its part. The shirt has been taken away for Peptide testing.



The reverse doubles began as the mercury nudged 30 degrees and tennis was got hot going. MFS & Black Caviar toiled doggedly but were always playing catch-up and went down 6-4 6-4 (most points were lost to Perry's backhand that could do no wrong). But Masterclass and Rock Steady were again too strong and prevailed 6-4 6-4 to give the Roosters a 3 rubbers to 1 win and banish the memories of last season's finals defeat.

As a very pleasant arvo tea was dished out, with a Masterstroke from Sean's old man (John) purchasing some cold  Crownies, there was an invasion of little people (coinciding with a loss of food items from the table).

Any person casually observing this raid by kids would say that this team is clearly comprised of allot of X chromosones, as between 3 team players there were 6 little girls all running about. At least the future of club's Women's teams is assured!

Thanks to Peter, Arnie Jo and fellow Roosters Yuri, Brian, Vic and the skipper for coming down to support too. Onward to next week.....

...stay tuned for next week's team Roosters

PLATITUDE OF THE WEEK

Captain to YW round 1
"use the strings!"

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POTW@albertparkroosters.com