Congratulations to the Ladies O40 team for making it to the National Finals this weekend in Nottingham. The team of Louisa Dalwood, Libby Montgomery, Maureen Morrison, Isobel Smith, Sheila Blake and Laura Taylor qualified as best runners up to make up the four teams at the final with Kent, Surrey and Yorkshire.
The team made their way to Nottingham, without Libby who unfortunately has been out injured for some time now. Our semi final match was against Kent, a very strong team but we were all feeling positive about the match. First on were Isobel and Laura. Isobel up against Candy Wilton, who she had played on numerous occasions, and although she had her chances and played well, lost 3-0. Laura also had her chances but lost her game 3-0. Then it was Louisa and Sheila on court. Louisa up against the new National Champion Keeley Johnson who was on a mission and beat Louisa 3-0. Sheila played well against Karen Hulme considering she had been out with injury for many weeks and also just come back from Australia! Sheila managed to get a game but lost 3-1 in the end. Then all down to Maureen to salvage something from the match against Catherine Ruffle. Maureen did her best but couldn’t get past the Kent No.2 losing 3-0. So with a loss of 5-0 we were playing for 3rd/4th place on Sunday.
Following an enjoyable evening and a very strange end to the evening at our hotel, aptly described by Louisa as ‘Faulty Towers’, no drink behind the bar, a very strange host and being woken at 3 a.m. by revellers coming back from a night out we could hardly say we were prepared for the 10 a.m. match against Yorkshire!.
However, we started our match well, Isobel went on to beat her opponent 3-0. Laura, was so close to winning but just lost 11-7 in the fifth, but great effort. Next on court was Louisa who, after a nervous start, beat her opponent 3-1. Sheila had another great performance but just didn’t have the match fitness to clinch her match, losing 11-6 in fifth. So it was all on the shoulders of Maureen at No.2 to win the match for Hertfordshire. Maureen, after a slow start got into the match and it seemed like she was getting stronger and stronger, however her opponent upped her game again and came out the winner beating Maureen 3-1.
Therefore Herts came fourth in the final placings. Great performances by all to get to the finals in the first place and all players a credit to Hertfordshire.
Well done ladies !
