Defeat for IInd Team

With 4 players making a debut to Senior County matches the Cambs team knew this would be a tough match.  The match started with Jason Lai & Ben Carter (debut) putting up some resistance to their opponents in the Men's singles but conceding in 2 ends. The Second Ladies singles also went to Suffolk in 2 ends with Carolyn Key (debut) being introduced to senior singles. Liz Salmon put up a fight in the first ladies' singles but sadly lost in 3 ends.

The Men's Doubles started well giving Cambs some hope with Sam Scharf and Chris Lim beating the Suffolk 1st pair in 3 ends. Sadly this was not to continue as they went on to be beaten by the second pair . Sam Pickup and Ben Carter as a debut scratch pair fought well but failed to trouble their opponents.

The ladies doubles was balanced with Liz Salmon and Sandra Ashcroft bring home 2 rubbers, both in 3 ends, but Tracey Bichener and Carolyn Key were disappointed being beaten in 2 ends.

Going into the Mixed Cambs needed to bring all 3 in to get a point of Suffolk. It started well with Liz Salmon and Sam Scharf winning comfortably in 2 ends, but Suffolk ruled the day as scratch pairs Sandra Ashcroft and Ben Carter, Tracey Bichener and Sam Pickup sadly lost in 2 ends each. Match result 11-4 to Suffolk.

Ist Team Find the Going Too Tough

After two straight defeats Cambridgeshire 1 desperately needed a victory against Warwickshire 3 to distance themselves from the foot of the table and allay their relegation worries. With two regular players being unavailable Amanda Godfrey started her first match of the season and Rob Pace stepped in to fill a gap in mens doubles.

The opening singles gave Cambs the perfect start as Rob Pace opened up his singles account with a confident victory and Olga Bryant kept up her impressive record with a straight sets win to give Cambs a 2-0 lead. Unfortunately this was as good as things got as the match rapidly turned in Warwickshire’s favour. The second round of singles saw defeats for Jon Carson and Jaclyn Lai before the level doubles pairings of Olga Bryant/Amanda Godfrey, Kate Balls/Jaclyn Lai, John Tibbutt/James Wilson and Rob Pace/Jon Carson contrived to lose all eight games in straight sets.

The mixed games were effectively dead rubbers, however veteran Nick Pratt, called back out of retirement to partner fellow veteran Bryant rolled back the years with a truly fantastic nail biting three end win over the extremely strong Warwicks first pair. Balls/Pace were unfortunate to lose out in their close fought match at second pair however Wilson/Godfrey laid down their claim to regular first team mixed with a solid win at third.

This left Cambridgeshire bitterly disappointed to leave empty handed with an 11-4 defeat and slightly confused as to how it went quite so wrong. Strong performances in the singles and mixed (and a lesson that experience and a wise head often count for more than youth and agility), however improvements are needed in level doubles if Cambs are to maintain their position in division 2.

First Team Slump to Second Defeat

Following their heavy defeat in the opening match of the season Cambridgeshire first team faced up to Nottinghamshire 3, a team they beat twice in the previous season.

Early straight sets defeats for Rob Pace and Jon Carson against beatable opposition highlighted the lack of strong mens singles players available. The ladies singles saw Olga Bryant pushed hard before she completed victory in 3 sets, and junior Jaclyn Lai recover from early nerves before just losing out in a tight fought game at second. 

The mens doubles were all extremely tight games, however the results were disappointing with John Tibbutt/James Wilson only taking one of their games and Jon Carson/Peter Galloway losing both.

The ladies doubles however was a different matter with fantastic results for both pairings of Olga Bryant/Alison Bennett and Kate Balls/Jaclyn Lai as they stormed to victory in all four games.

Two out of three mixed were required for a win but the match was lost with a disappointing loss for Balls/Pace, closely followed by a close defeat for Bryant/Carson. Bennett/Tibbutt picked up a consolation game with their second win of the season to leave the final score 8-7.

This is a match that Cambridge really ought to have won and with two consecutive losses leaves the selectors a few decisions to make before the next game.

Congratulations to all the ladies for fantastic performances, and John Tibbutt for picking up two out of three games.

IInd Team Falter in Tough Match

The second fixture of the season started with Jason Lai and Liz Salmon’s singles matches. After an epic battle the young but ever impressive Lai won 21-16, 14-21, 21-16 and produced Cambridgeshire’s first point of the fixture. With a strong set of women the Leicestershire’s first lady beat Salmon in a well battled game14-21, 15-21 to tie the match after the first two games. The second string of games all went to Leicestershire beating Watkins in three 21-16, 14-21, 21-16 and Hayward who was making her first appearance in two 19-21, 11-21.

Entering the doubles games with a three to one deficit, the Cambridgeshire team went down in all four ladies doubles games again illustrating the strength of the Leicestershire women.

The men had slightly better fortune with the pairings of Bates/Couch and Hodgkinson/Watkins both beating the second pair. Both pairs came unstuck loosing in three ends against the first Leicestershire pair.

Having played the singles and doubles Cambridgeshire were 9 – 3 down and playing for the chance of a single point. The first match on was Couch and Salmon who, after a mammoth first end, lost 25-27, 17-21. Thus playing now for pride the final two mixed started their games with Hodgkinson/Chandler after a closely fought first end comfortably won 22-20, 21-8 with some excellent play by Chandler. The final mixed was won by Bates/Godfrey in three, showing superb battling and Cambridgeshire determination to win in three 20-22, 15-21, 21-17. The final score 5-10 in Leicestershire’s favour.

Ist Team Struggle With Tough Opener

This weekend saw the opening fixtures of the new county season with the first team travelling to play to Norfolk 1. The team has seen many changes this season with several key players leaving the county, however new blood has also arrived and the team welcomes newcomers Kate Balls, junior Jaclyn Lai and university player Peter Galloway.  Having closely missed out on promotion last season the team was confident of another successful season, however Norfolk were unfortunate to be relegated from division 1, and have been greatly strengthened with the addition of several new players.

The opening singles games saw straight sets defeats for Rob Pace and Peter Galloway against very strong opponents. The ladies singles players (undefeated all last season) also found their opponents too strong, with both Olga Bryant and Jaclyn Lai suffering straight sets defeats.

Cambridge were hopeful of better results in the doubles matches, however the first pairing of Jon Carson/Peter Galloway were unable to change Cambridge’s fortunes, losing to the Norfolk first pair then despite taking an end against the second pair, unfortunately again being beaten. Cambridge second pair of John Tibbutt/James Wilson, reunited after a season apart due to injury suffered no better luck, also losing both their games.

Cambridge champions Olga Bryant/Alison Bennett had a close match against an extremely strong Norfolk first pair and were unfortunate not to get a result, however they got Cambridge off the mark with a tight three end win over the second pair. Kate Balls/Jaclyn Lai, playing together for the first time in a competitive match found the Norfolk first pair too strong, but had a very close game against the second pair, unfortunately just missing out on a win.

The mixed doubles also did not go in Cambridge’s favour with pairings of Bryant/Carson and Balls/Pace finding their opponents much too tough. However third pairing of Bennett/Tibbutt won a consolation game with an exceptionally tight win to leave the final score a disappointing 13-2.

Despite the heavy loss several positives came out of the game, with two good wins for Alison Bennett, and good performances from new pairings of Balls/Lai and Carson/Galloway. Norfolk must be strong favourites for promotion back to division 1 and Cambridge are confident of much better results against their other opponents.

Great Start for IInd Team

The first fixture of the season for 2008-2009 started with a nine games to six victory. In the singles, Cambs took three out of the four singles with newly crowned restricted champion James Watkins comfortably beating his opponent 21-17, 21-9.  The second of the three came from Jason Lai who took his in three ends, 10-21, 21-11, 21-18, a superb battling performance indeed. In the ladies singles Liz Salmon won in two ends 21-13, 21-12 with her serve catching out the opponent on more than one occasion. The last ladies singles saw Isabel Gutteridge take on a strong Bedfordshire player who after a battling three ends gave Bedfordshire their only singles point 19-21, 21-15, 16-21.

Having attained a 3-1 advantage at this stage the level doubles begun with new men’s pairings Will Hodgkinson/Dan Bates as well as James Watkins/Neil Place. Watkins and Place successfully took both or their games to add another two to the Cambridgeshire total, with Hodgkinson and Bates adding another point. Not a bad effort considering it was their first time on court together. With some necessary practice together this could be a very fruitful partnership.

Moving onto the ladies doubles the pairings of Amanda Godfrey/Tracey Bichener and Liz Salmon/Sandra Ashcroft both added single victories in three end epics with Godfrey and Bichener unfortunate to take both.

Going into the mixed games Cambridgeshire had already been assured of the victory after Salmon and Ashcroft fought to victory sending the Camb’s squad into a rapturous cheer.  Within the mixed pairs, Place and Salmon took the only victory capping a fine day for both players. The other pairings of Bates/Godfrey and Hodgkinson/Gutteridge both went to three ends but were sadly pipped at the post by their Bedfordshire counter parts.

All in all, considering the new look squad and a newly promoted side a victory away from home was a superb effort by all. With more experience together we expect the new pairings to get even better and predict a successful season. Having just come into the side I personally feel the one thing this team has is a lot of fight and support for each other, which no doubt will only increase as the season progresses. 

2008 Cambridgeshire Players Tournament

The annual Cambridgeshire Players Tournament was held over the weekend at Littleport Sports Centre. Disappointingly there was a slightly lower entry than the previous year but once again it was excellent to see such a large number of juniors competing.

With the mens singles champion not defending his title the competition was wide open and such was the close standard of entrants that only two of the four seeded players made the semi-finals. Top seed Rob Pace unfortunately picked up an injury in the early rounds but battled through to face tournament veteran Kevin Barron in the last four for the third consecutive year. Pace took the first set before the injury took its toll and Barron gained revenge with a three set victory. In the bottom half of the draw both seeds suffered early defeats and junior James Watkins defeated university player Joe Pickering in straight sets to face club mate Barron in the final. A comfortable victory for Watkins made him the youngest winner of the tournament in recent memory, a great achievement without dropping a single set.

The rather low turn out for ladies singles made Olga Bryant odds on favourite yet another title and this proved accurate as she won all three matches without dropping a set. Junior Jaclyn Lai pushed Bryant closely and took runners up place.

The mens doubles is often the hottest contested event, however things went mostly to form this year with last year’s winners Kevin Barron/Sunny Loy, new pairing of Jon Carson/Peter Galloway, perennial partners Rob Couch/Dan Bates and John Tibbutt/Rob Pace (ignoring advice and playing through injury) making the last four. Barron made his second final of the weekend with a tight three end win over Carson/Galloway who paid the price for several tough matches in a rather top heavy draw. Couch/Bates were unable to reproduce their excellent form which saw them take the tightest of all games in their quarter final and were comfortably beaten by Tibbutt/Pace. The final proved to be a rather disappointing match with Barron/Loy retaining their title relatively easily in straight sets.

Three of last year’s ladies finalists were unable to enter this year, leaving the competition open to newcomers. Olga Bryant combined with Alison Bennett to take her second title of the weekend with a closely fought win over newcomer Katie Balls with Liz Salmon.

The mixed doubles proved to be a two horse race with reigning champions Alison Bennett and John Tibbutt facing pre-tournament favourites Olga Bryant and Nick Pratt in a re-run of last year’s semi final. Their desire to avenge last year’s defeat was obvious and with Bryant was aiming for a clean sweep of all three events and Pratt going for his eighth mixed doubles title in ten years they proved much too strong for their opponents and ran out comfortable winners.

Plate competition winners:

Mens singles: Tom Legerton

Mens doubles: James Wilson/Mariusz Borowiec

Ladies doubles: Melissa Makin/Isabel Gutteridge

Mixed doubles: Lisa Hawes/Neil Place