Bath Wrestle With Bear at Rec

Having lost at the Bear of Rodborough with a makeshift team earlier in the season, Bath were out for revenge when the Bear visited the Recreation Ground on Saturday 14 July. Even though Bath were back at full strength, the two teams were evenly matched on paper and it was expected to be a close match.

Roger Hayes, although not at his best, was too strong for his morning singles opponent and gave Bath the lead. Unfortunately Bath’s doubles pairing of Peter Miles and Andrew Willis were behind when time was called in their game and, although Willis had one final chance to snatch victory from the jaws of defeat, an uncharacteristic mistake meant that there was to be no heroic comeback and the scores were level at lunch.

Willis was clearly able to put his earlier error behind him as he won his afternoon singles game in a flash. Miles never looked to be in any trouble in his game and was a comfortable winner too, securing overall victory in the match for Bath. At this point, and with time running out, Hayes looked to be the second favourite in the third afternoon singles game. However, not for the first time this season, Hayes used all of his experience to hit in over considerable distance when it mattered and was able to turn things around, making the overall match score 4-1 to Bath.

With just one match remaining away to Nailsea in September, and with four wins from five matches, Bath are now hot favourites for promotion to Division 1 next season.