81. Women's Doubles Tennis

Event: Women's Doubles Tennis
Date: 17th July 2015
Location: Leisureworld Tennis Centre, Eudo Road, Colchester
Cost: £17.00 for two hours
Rules: The winners are the team who win the best of three sets. The first team to win six games wins a set, but they must lead the other team by two clear games. The final set is played to advantage and a wide court is played.

The Game:

 

 
London 2012 Winners: Serena and Venus Williams, USA.

Teams:

Laura & Claire
Sarah & Ellie

Score:  

Set One:   L&C 3 v 6 E&S. Winner E&S
Set Two:   L&C 6 v 2 E&S. Winner L&C
Set Three: L&C 0 v 6 E&S. Winner E&S
Winners: Ellie and Sarah 
           
Comments:
Sarah: We had a lovely sunny evening for our last tennis match of the Challenge, and it was a pretty fine way to spend a Friday night. I'm not a huge tennis fan, but was pleasantly surprised by how much I enjoyed it tonight. It was my first time playing on a grass court and it took us all a while to get in the swing of things, but we definitely improved as the games passed. Most of the points were won and lost on the serves, but we did manage to get a handful of rallies going throughout the match. I think most of my returns were reactions rather than informed shots, but we were just happy for any point we could scrape!

Ellie: Who knew that tennis takes so long? This match took us 2 hours and we were really speeding along at the end to try and get all the games in. It's tricky to get the power levels right without dropping the ball into the net or sending it into the car park but once you get a few shots on target it's very satisfying. It was lovely to be partnered with Sarah; we seem to be on opposing teams during this challenge so it was nice to get some high-fives on the go. Claire and Laura were superb opponents and it was a pretty even game. I think luck had a lot to do with the majority of points scored and we went from deuce to advantage and back to deuce again a lot! It was a lovely evening and I can imagine playing again for fun once our challenge is finished.

Huge thanks to our fantastic opponents Laura and Claire!

 

80. 400m Individual Medley

Event: 400m Individual Medley
Date: 26th June 2015
Location: London Aquatics Centre
Cost: £3.50 each
Rules:  The Swimmer competes in equal distances of every swimming style. The event combines technique, speed and endurance. The swimmer completes 100ms of Butterfly, Backstroke, Breaststroke and Free style. Some part of the swimmer must touch the wall at the end of each length and at the finish.

   

The Event: 

Times:

Olympic Gold Medal London 2012: 4:28.45, Ye Shiwen, China.

Sarah: 13:56.80

Ellie: 15:20.24

Comments:  
Sarah: Having done no swim training in months, I wasn't looking forward to this one. After a few practice lengths to remember how to do some weird form of Butterfly, we just got stuck in. It turned out there wasn't much to dislike about this event; two lengths of each stroke gave a really nice variety, lots of tumble turns (never get bored of them) and best of all, the last time we'll ever have to do Butterfly hurray! 
          
Ellie: Swimming in an Olympic pool is very special and today it was wonderfully peaceful and the sun shone outside. The 400m medley is a tricky one; just as you get into the flow of the stroke you have to change and I definitely struggled with some of the turns - performing odd acrobatic somersaults that didn't help me in the least! It was great to be back in the water though and remind myself that swimming for pleasure is something I should do more often. So that is one less swimming event to do and no more Butterfly stroke but each time we tick off a swimming event in the pool brings us nearer to our very long outdoor swim and that is terrifying!!