Herts Ladies 1st Team came very close to gaining promotion to the Premier Division this weekend. The team was weakened as juniors Grace Gear and Amber Marshall were competing in another tournament. However, they were pleased to welcome new face, Cathy Abernethy, to the team and she will be an asset to the team next season.
The squad was Lousia Dalwood, Cathy Abernethy, Isobel Smith, Libby Montgomery, Maureen Morrison and Sheila Blake. Their first match on Saturday was against Staffordshire, Sheila and Isobel going on first and both winning their matches, Isobel making her game slightly harder by going down 2-0 and match ball down and managing to come back and win! Maureen and Louisa were up next and both up against difficult opponents, unfortunately they both lost and so it was all down to newcomer Cathy to save the day. Cathy played extremely well and won her game comfortably.
In the afternoon we were up against the hosts Nottinghamshire, a strong team. Isobel sat this one out and Libby and Sheila went on first. Sheila won her match 3-0 but unfortunately Libby, feeling frustrated could not get into her game and lost 3-0. Next up were Maureen and Louisa. Maureen played a cracking match to beat her opponent Alison Goy 3-2, having lost to her at the Stage 1 weekend, so great performance. Louisa played another cracking game against very strong opponent Rachel Pullen losing a very close match 3-0, but all games were close and Louisa had her chances. So again all down to Cathy to save the team. Cathy played out of her socks and everyone was on the edge of their seats as it all came down to this match. Our nerves couldn’t bear it and Cathy just lost 12-10 in the fifth, a great performance and such a shame she couldn’t clinch it. We therefore lost 3-2 to Notts.
Sunday morning we played Merseyside and the team won 5-0 and won all matches 3-0, therefore getting maximum points. A great performance by all.
Final positions were: 1st Notts 56 points, 2nd Herts 51 points, 3rd Staffs and 4th Merseyside.
Therefore the team will remain in Division 1 for next season, but are looking forward to fielding a strong team of juniors next season and hopefully going for promotion again.
