On day 4 Somerset were to play rivals from the North – East Durham and Cleveland. Somerset continued the trend of winning the first round 2-1 where Manlow and Felton won 7-5 3-6 6-3. Harvard doubles specialist Alistair Felton said “despite a tired performance, we were relived to get the win”. Somerset team was bolstered for day 4 with the arrival of talented full time player Richard Gabb, fresh from a futures in Ireland.
Gabb partnered experienced campaigner Pankhurst and showed all the talent and guile to win comfortably 6-3 6-3. Pankhurst said “it’s great to get Gabb back into the team after three years of absence” and “I enjoyed playing with him a great deal”
Bettles and Phillips were again involved in three sets against the experience pair of Galpin and Barratclough. After winning the first set, they dropped the next and led in the third, but lost the set 7-5 in deteriorating light and heavy drizzle. On greasy courts the standard of the match remained high which was a testament to all the players.
A frustrating period in the middle of the day, where rain persisted, rendered the grass courts unplayable and with the hard courts puddling left the players resorting to the iPods and laptops to pass the time. The Wi-Fi connection at the North Oxford Club kept both spectators and players entertained. After a captain meeting play was called off in late afternoon with the grass courts sodden and the hard courts still slippery teams were braced for a big day on Friday with many computations still possible. Somerset and Bucks remained favourites to go up after three wins and Cornwall looking to put the cat amongst the pigeons with two wins from the first three days. Cambridgeshire were looking to consolidate their place in Group 5 on one, with D & C and South of Scotland looking to fight away relegation without a win in the early stages of the competition.
Bearing in mind the weather around the country this week, North Oxford seemed to get lucky for the first three days, so perhaps Men’s Group 5 was due its share. Somerset men relaxed in the evening with a trip to the nearby health club, an early evening snooze and some competitive rounds of cards.
Bring on Friday!!
Full day 1, 2 and 3 results from Men’s group 5 can be found here
The squad consists of Matthew Bernard (Taunton), James Pankhurst (Yeovil), James Deem (Wellington), Chris Lister (Porlock), Matthew Bettles (Trull), Dan Manlow (Wellington), Alistair Felton (Barton St David), Craig Phillips (Brean) and Richard Gabb (Street).