Past versus Present as good as ever!
Cambridge University Sports Centre
Saturday, 12th February 2022
18 members of the Past turned out to take on the Present Men’s VIII, a Ladies IV and play some Mixed Doubles for the Ted Isaacs Trophy. With the Present deprived of two players, one by covid, last year’s captain Sarthak Garella guested for the Men’s Present and drew the short straw of Singles against Ed Kay! Unsurprisingly the Singles went very much the way of the Past, except for an impressive win for Hon.Sec. Ben Burgess over the 2019 captain Jeremy Manger.
The Doubles too favoured the Past, but CURFC’s 1st pair of Emrys Thursfield & Ben Burgess came out 29-25 over two games against Ed Kay & Steve Platts and only lost to Ian Jackson & Ashwin Ahuja 14-16, 15-16. One extraordinary feature of the Doubles was the sight of 75 year-old Martin Wilkinson playing in two hard games in the third pair. The Past won the match and the Trapnell Tankard 321-163.
On court 3 Holly Nugent led her VI to victory in the Mixed Doubles, before she, Rosie Taylor, Cameron Roker, Imogen Jenner and Lucy Richman took on a strong Ladies Past side composed of Savanna Leboff, Helena Tunks, Sophie Kenny and Tori Boyd. The Present won 3 of the 9 games played and a final score of 90-65 did great credit to the Present even in defeat.
The Match was followed by the 73rd Jock Burnet Dinner at Pembroke College where President Bob Dolby managed to forget to read out a letter of best wishes from 93 year-old Chris Metcalfe, the one remaining member of the side that played in the very first Past versus Present in 1949! Despite that it was what Jock always said it was: “the evening that never fails”.
With thanks to Andy Pringle for photos
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