EDitorial ± 12-Nov-2008

TT0809, KO Cup, Round 1

Nights drawing in, shorts put away, midway through a new series of Spooks, so must be time for the annual Knock Out Cup. Possible that I've told you already that the Defiants are former winners of this prestigious Carling Cup-alike comp. Imagine in a Yentob stylee that Arsenal are drawn against, oh, I dunno, Aldershot. They play the full 90 minutes, it finishes 7-2 to the Gunners, but then the score is adjusted according to each club's handicap. Adjusted score works out as 3-4, i.e. Aldershot go through. Everyone clear?

Out to Burstall village hall (love that wiring) for an opening round encounter with a Capel team who play a division above us. To complicate the not quite complicated enough scoring, players now have individual handicaps. It's as if I'm Walcott, Rob is Gallas and Kev is Song Billong. Kind of.

Awful start by Ed, failing to click against their Janet and giving away four adjusted points. That's a lot. Thankfully Kev's showing some latent potential and Rob wins a game outright, giving us a five point lead after the opening singles. Which we then extend to nine points after some competent doubles. Obliged to cite two cracking Kev moments:

  1. their guy smashes a forehand, Kev smashes a backhand return at a Federesque angle
  2. Kev's serve and he hits it not forwards (too obvious) but backwards

I make a game of it by giving away another four points, dumbhead, before Rob and me win four games on the bounce to give us an unassailable lead. Quality team performance: I'd say ping pong was the winner, but it'll be our name that goes through to the next round. Now waiting for the televised draw from ITTF headquarters.