It was a glorious morning on Saturday 23rd June when M4 arrived at the almost untouched Brasenose grass courts #gettingyourmoneysworth. After a warm up, the first three singles matches were underway and, after what felt like another warm up, the men in dark blue emerged three matches to the good, David ‘Guinness’ Steiner, Jaro Varchola, and David ‘the Elder’ Heathcote dealing the damage. Only seven games were dropped. Emphatic stuff. The next round of singles matches were tougher, with one Tab even having the cheek to get them on the overall scoreboard. Kudos to Will Kilbourn for triumphing despite “a drink or two” the night before after finishing exams. The score was 5-1 heading into the doubles.
Max ‘here for a good time, not a long time’ Goldmann and Veteran Keat dropped their first set before remembering how to play tennis and taking the next two sets 6-1 6-1. Winning the other two doubles matches in straight sets, with onlookers describing Stanislas Mlatac's serving and volleying as particularly easy on the eye, meant M4 could smell a day one victory with 3 more doubles matches to be played and the score at 8-1. Could they do it? They didn’t even break sweat. Not dropping a set in the remaining matches meant the score was 11-1 at the end of the first day with the win in the bag.
Victory secured, the boys started the next day with high hopes of a trouncing as well as a spring in their step. In the next round of singles, one match was lost, but skipper Jake Stroud made sure this didn’t dampen spirits by making his personnel grab themselves a deckchair each to “enjoy the day”. This clearly had the desired effect as for the final round of doubles, no sets were dropped. That and it allowed for some ideal seating in which to enjoy the last few games with some cold beers the boys happened to find. The final score was 19-2 to Oxford. Jake, when asked for word on his team’s performance, gushed, “very proud of my team to turn around our previous losing streak against Cambridge in such a dramatic fashion”.
