Six wins from eight: our opening league results

The second round of National University Padel League fixtures is tomorrow, Thursday 27 November. Before it, here is a look back at the club's opening day in the South East Conference on 25 October, when Oxford met Cambridge, the London School of Economics, Reading and Oxford Brookes. It was a strong start: across the two Division 1 competitions, our pairs won six of their eight matches.

Men's Division 1

Our first pair won both of their matches, against Cambridge's second pair and the second pair from Oxford Brookes. Our second pair also beat Brookes's second pair, but lost to LSE's first pair.

Women's Division 1

The women's results were the same as the men's. Our first pair won twice, against the second pairs from Oxford Brookes and Cambridge. Our second pair beat Brookes's second pair and then lost to LSE's first pair.

Both of our Division 1 defeats on the day came against LSE's first pairs, the benchmark in both divisions so far. Meeting them again later in the season will be a real test of our progress.

Men's Division 2

Division 2 was harder going. Our third and fourth pairs lost some matches, but those matches were very close. Our pairs also received a walkover from Cambridge in the division. For a club playing its first league fixtures, the closeness of those defeats is encouraging.

Looking ahead

Each pair plays every other pair in its division except the other pair from its own university, so most of the season is still to come. Every result adds to the division standings, and the leading pairs from each conference will qualify for the national Finals Day in the spring.

We go again tomorrow.