Final County Weekend

Posted 15:13 01 May 2009 in Premier Weekend

Most of the week was spent resting my thumb, I played Wednesday night at our County practice, and tried some strapping and that wasn’t much fun. The practice was poor for a night just before the county weekend, but made the most of it.

 

 

 

Travelled up Friday night, stayed at the lodge, its ok a bit basic, I called it glorified student accommodation, but my other half said that was harsh, they’re also just starting to decorate…..our room had been cut-in around the ceiling….nothing else but at least it was a start.

 

 

 

Saturday morning vs Lancashire . The weekend was a bit in our own hands, we played two other relegation candidates Lancs and Leicestershire…..so if we beat them both, we’d be safe! Men’s Singles went the way of Lancashire, but fortunately the Ladies Singles went our way 2-2, things looking ok as a start……..I was playing with young Mark Newberry again, we’d had a mountain of practice since the last county weekend…..ah, no we didn’t…..we came out firing well against Harry Wright and Tom Dunlop, but just lost things at the end of the 1^st and lost 21-18. The second started badly……and continued very badly….losing to 8….some dreadful returns of serve and serving itself wasn’t great. Very disappointing.

2^nd Men’s Doubles lost and we were now 4-2 down, we shared the Ladies Doubles and the score was 5-3, we had to win both mixed to get a draw out of it. Not ideal as we were 2 points behind Lancs at the start of the day, so ideally needed a 6-4 to even things up.

Well, we lost 1^st mixed, lost the first set to 12, then were down near the end of the second, scraped back a bit but lost to 19. Fortunately 2^nd mixed was picked up with a good win in 3, so we finished the match 6-4 down, definitely not ideal!!!!

 

 

 

The afternoon we played Surrey , often we’ve done ok out of this fixture, picking up 4 or 5. This time was a rather painful 7-3 loss,  we picked up 2^nd ladies singles and both ladies doubles. Hampshire’s women helping the team through again……no change there then!!!

But with Full time players throughout the Surrey team, us men were always up against it! Newbs and I struggled with the pace and accuracy of the Honey and Beckman at 1^st mens doubles, but were in the hunt at 18 in the second, just lacked that last little bit. Infinitely better than the collapse in the morning. For the Mixed we were joined by Sarah Hardaker, who had finished her work in the morning and was in for mixed, we played Langridge and Ward two full time England players, a reasonable game, but the scores showed they were in control most of the time. 21-12, 21-13.

 

 

 

An interesting evening, having Pizza Hut in central Milton Keynes …..never realised Aluminous Pink was so fashionable!!!

Sunday morning was crunch time, Lancs were hopefully going to get stuffed by Notts….where were all their top men!!!!!

We definitely had to pick up points against Leicestershire, otherwise we could end up bottom. We have a decent record against them, its always close, usually a 6-4 one way or the other or a 5all draw. This time was 6-4 loss.

 

 

 

We picked up 1^st mens singles, with Ashton finishing the season with a win! Both ladies singles came good, with our young 16yr old, having a 100% record for the weekend.

2^nd Ladies Doubles, did what they ofter do and that was our 4. Newbs and I wasted a chance of picking up the 1^st set, losing a very annoying 24-22, then things capitulated a bit again and got thumped to 10.

1^st mixed against Armstrong and Brett, we lost a tight first to 17, then things came really good, winning the second set to 9, everything was working perfectly. But the third was close all the way, with them always having a lead throughout the teens and the match finished with a win to them 16 in the 3^rd end! Gutting, thought the season might finish with a win.

 

 

 

So we finished 9^th, on the weekend we apparently stayed up via a technicality, but a subsequent appeal by Cheshire meant that we were actually relegated. Very gutted over finally losing our top flight status, but we escaped by a technicality once before and hopefully it means a chance for our “young” team to gain some experience in Prem B, the youngsters to establish themselves in the team and hopefully we can be at the top of the league next year rather than the bottom….but Prem B seems just as tough as Prem A.

Monday morning, my thumb was as swollen as it was the day after I did it, but now starts 6 weeks rest for my shoulder to completely heal. My season is over, a good rest for the shoulder to heal properly and then a full summer’s worth of training to make the most of next season.