For the first time this fixture included Ladies teams which meant an earlier start for all, however I will let the Ladies Team Captain Sian Hughes report on their matches. It was a 3pm start with our first match against the Combined Services Team (the best of the Army, Navy and RAF). They were stronger than in recent years and although we put up a good fight we lost the match by 20 points to 5 (2 matches did go to 5 games, myself and Marc Aldridge). The match between the Police and Fire Service though, turned out to be a bit of a farce. The Police won the first 4 matches easily but as their No1 turned up nearly 3 hours late the match had to be forfeited 20 – 0 to the Fire Service.
In the morning we were due to play the Police who were obviously a bit sore about losing 20 points the night before. We were well beaten with only Mike Nicholls putting up a decent fight going down in 5 despite having several match balls in the 4th game, 20 – 3 to the Police. The Combined Services easily beat the Fire Service, only dropping 2 games in the whole match.
The third round of matches took place straight after lunch and what would have been almost a final between the Combined Services and the Police was less significant because of the 20 points the Police had lost the night before. Despite this, there was an amount of pride to play for with the Police proving that they were the strongest side in the tournament. They beat the Combined Services 17 – 5 only dropping 1 match. Our final match was against the Fire Service but it was now impossible to catch them due to the 20pts from the night before. Despite this and the fact that John McFarlane couldn’t play (injured knee) we still managed to win the match 16 – 9 with all four remaining players contributing well.
Although disappointing to have finished 4th after finishing 2nd last year, there were several contributing factors. The Police and Combined Services fielded probably their strongest ever teams but despite this I think we performed very well with some matches that could have gone either way.
The Club must also be thanked for some excellent hospitality and for allowing us to have so many courts to complete all our matches.
