Masters County Challenge Report 2023
The County Challenge for Masters is an Annual competition held at various venues around the country bringing together all the Masters teams for a weekend competition across all age groups. The format is slightly different to the season long Masters Championships which have 12 rubbers – 4 Mens, 4 Ladies and 4 mixed; this on has just 4 rubbers – 1 Mens, 1 Ladies and 2 Mixed.
This year Hertfordshire had teams at O40s, O55s, O60s and O65s and we had exceptionally good results with both the O55s and O60s winning and gaining promotion to the Premier Division next season.
Match Reports
Masters O40 Challenge in Bournemouth
This year our O40 team played the County Challenge in Division 2B at Bournemouth. There were 5 matches across the weekend against some familiar opponents from our regional competition together with Avon, Wiltshire and Wales. Our team was Allison Alexander, Gosia Bruce, Monica Rossil, Mel Clark, Paula Collier, David Brown, Roy Waterman, Daniel Miller, Richard Potter and captain Paul Kempster.
Saturday started with a “local derby” match against Suffolk which ended with a draw. Mel and Paula had a really close ladies but narrowly missed out but there were wins for Rich and Dan in the mens’ and a hard fought 3-set victory in the mixed for Dave and Monica.
The next match was against Avon with Dave and Paul winning the mens’ in 2 games and Dan and Monica teaming up in the mixed to pull out a great 3-set win to secure another 2-2 draw.
The final match of the day with Wiltshire proved to be tougher with both Mel and Paula and also Rich and Roy going to 3-games in their level doubles but narrowly missing out, but another really strong mixed performance from Dave and Monica meant we ended with a more respectable looking 1-3 loss to end the day.
Saturday evening was a sit down dinner followed by a really entertaining disco and dance with the Herts team showing their stamina and endurance by being the final team on the dance floor at the end of the night, with a polite request from the DJ that it was time to finish so he could pack away.
On Sunday morning was the second of our local matches this time against Cambridgeshire. Mel and Allison came back well in the second ladies game but couldn’t take their match to a decider and Dan and Rich weren’t able to overpower in their mens’. In the mixed, Paul and Monica had a really close 3-set match but missed out on a win. The game of the match was undoubtedly the second mixed with Roy and Gosia losing the first 23-21 but battling tirelessly in the next to save 4 match points and win 26-24 to take it to a decider. Unfortunately it went Cambs way to end with a rather disappointing and unreflective 4-0 loss.
The final match of the day was against the country of Wales…Paula and Allison had a 3-set match in the ladies and Dave and Paul had a 3-set match in the mens’ but neither were able to convert into a win. Dan and Monica teamed up in the mixed and had a strong victory in 2 games but with another close mixed for Gosia and Roy also going to Wales we ended the last match with a 3-1 loss overall.
With a team of 10 players we had a variety of combinations for the pairings and everyone thoroughly enjoyed the weekend down by the sea.
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Masters O55 Challenge at Birmingham University
At the MCC, the Herts Over 55’s played at The University of Birmingham. Our group consisted, Cambridgeshire, Warwickshire, Nottinghamshire, Norfolk and Worcestershire.
We had travelled with a strong team – 5 Men and 5 Ladies
Our Men Our Ladies
Eddie Lintott Briony Lacey
Mike Wong Nicky Dewhurst
Steve Aylott Sangeeta Dhall
Richard Adams Michelle Cobb
Gary Starling Nathalie Titterton
The first day saw Herts beat both Cambridgeshire and Warwickshire convincingly both, 4-0 with a nail biter against Nottinghamshire drawing 2-2. The competition was really tough and every match was fought very hard. After the first day 3 teams were in contention, Herts, Notts and Worcestershire and any of these 3 counties could win the 55’s event.
On the second day we had to play Norfolk and then a long wait to the final game of the day vs. Worcester. After comfortably beating Norfolk 4-0, we knew that a win against Worcester would mean that Herts would win the weekend.
In the final match we had a titanic match against Worcester – after the Men’s and Ladies doubles we were all square going into the Mixed pairs. Both Mixed matches went to 3 ends with Herts prevailing in both to take the match 3-1 and consequently win the County Challenge for the Over 55’s.
What a weekend – the team spirit was amazing, the badminton was great and coming away with the win was the icing on the cake.
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Masters O60s Challenge at Birmingham University
We played in Division 1A and although six counties had originally entered, by the time of the weekend we were down to four, so we played each team twice.
Our team was Linda Riley, Rashida Barnett, Sally Devine, Kiyoko Pullen, Nick Goode, Tim Jalland, Tim Moore, Kevin Maughan and Steve Willis as a travelling reserve.
Saturday started with a hard fought ‘winning draw’ against Notts (2-2, 5-5, 184-175), followed by more straight-forward 4-0 wins over Worcestershire and Shropshire. Saturday evening saw us joining our O55s team and the other counties at our hotel for a great evening at the tournament dinner/disco, including a birthday celebration for Kim Maughan who turned 60 on the Sunday. Unfortunately, during the evening, Tim M received some news that meant that he needed to return home early the following day, leaving Steve to stand in unexpectedly.
First match on Sunday was the repeat fixture against Notts, who had made some tweaks to their team. Mens went to Herts, and ladies (just) to Notts, and this time Kevin & Linda failed to pick up top mixed (maybe too much dancing the night before), so the pressure was on Steve and Sally to win so that we could salvage a draw. No worries – they were in devastating form and won 15 & 17 giving us a ‘winning draw’ (2-2, 4-4, 158-146). Shropshire and Worcestershire again were 4-0 victories and so we ended the weekend top of our league.
Promotion to Premier next season will provide a bit of a challenge!
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Masters 065s Challenge in Eastleigh
The Over 65s played in Division 1B in a League of 6 counties, split roughly between those from the West Country (Dorset, Somerset, Devon) and some Home Counties (Herts, Hants, Sussex).
Our team squad was Angie Rayappan, Razinah Scofield, Sandra Ingham, Anita Harris, Dave Berry, Mike Newlove, Rob Tucker, Dwight Smiley and John Ridley. Unfortuanately we only had Anita for the Saturday only, so she played in each of the 3 games that day.
The Over 65 format is different from the younger groups, being 1 Mens Doubles, 1 Ladies Doubles and 1 Mixed Doubles.
On Saturday we played against Somerset, which was hard fought, but we lost 1-2. The Devon game was even tougher, but no less battled where we lost 0-3, the result disguising the close games. Herts won against Dorset, 3-0, again another close match.
Saturday evening saw the squad take dinner together and a good time was had by all.
Sunday saw us play only 2 games, where we lost 1-2 each time. The match against Sussex – probably the winners of the group – was closely contested.
Lastly, special mention and thanks must go to the ladies of the Herts squad.
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