Hertfordshire Over 50’s
For this year’s Master’s County Challenge, the Over 50’s travelled to Eastleigh knowing we would be playing in a really tough group. We were pitched against Oxfordshire, Buckinghamshire, Cornwall and Surrey, we knew that both Oxford and Cornwall had come down from the Premiership last year and this would challenge the team.
Our team was made up of 4 men and 5 ladies and this meant we had some cover in the ladies if we had any injuries, but the men would need to play in every match.
Our Ladies consisted: Our Men consisted:
Julie Dunlop Richard Adams
Briony Lacey Graham Cobb
Nicky Dewhurst Gary Starling
Michelle Cobb Fin Rooney
Diane Brown
Saturday’s Herts Team in the Saturday Kit
The draw on Saturday meant that our first 2 matches were against Oxford and Cornwall the 2 teams who came down from the Premiership, so we knew they would be very tough matches – the team were on fire and we beat Oxfordshire 3-1 in our first match and drew 2-2 against Cornwall who were the favourites. Our matches against both Buckinghamshire and Surrey although tough resulted 4-0 wins meaning we finished the first day 1 point ahead of Cornwall and were unbeaten. The team spirit and buzz was tremendous and as a team we knew we had performed really well and surprised many of the other teams in our group.
In terms of individuals, every member of the squad had played a vital role in securing the results in the first day, we found some new pairings that worked tremendously well, Gary and Michelle were unbeaten, and their mixed games were perfectly suited to each other. Diane was a superstar in the Ladies doubles and with Briony or Julie being super strong in both ladies or mixed it gave us so many options. Richard and Graham have been very consistent all year and again delivered an unbeaten run. Massive thanks to Fin who played brilliantly in our second mixed pair all weekend.
Sunday’s Herts Team in the Sunday Kit (Missing our International Man of Mystery – Fin)
On Sunday we had our first match against a strong Cornwall team, they had reshaped their team from the previous day and got a great start to the match by beating the unbeaten Richard and Graham, our ladies came good, so we were 1-1 after the first 2 rubbers. Cornwall’s mixed pairings then performed superbly taking out both our first and second mixed pairs – this meant we suffered our first loss of the challenge. Cornwall were now 1 point ahead of us with 3 matches to play. All to play for but we knew we had to win all our other matches.
Onto Surrey, beating them 4-0, then onto Buckinghamshire, beating them 4-0, it was going to be very close and we knew we had possibly the hardest match of the day to come against Oxfordshire. We shifted our team around to ensure we gave ourselves the best chance of winning and with superb performances by Diane and Nicky in the Ladies, Richard and Briony in the mixed 1 and Fin and Julie in the mixed 2 meant we beat them 3-1.
This meant that out of a possible 16 points available across the 2 days Hertfordshire had picked up 13 points – an amazing result. When the scores were all added up the league was as follows:
Cornwall – 13 Points
Hertfordshire – 13 Points
Oxfordshire – 10 Points
Surrey – 5 Points
Buckinghamshire – 3 Points
Because Cornwall and Hertfordshire drew the league at 13 Points each, this meant it went to count back and on the basis that we drew in our first match and lost our second match against Cornwall in the head to head they took the win and will now be promoted.
Although it is disappointing to have missed out on count back, the entire team gave everything and left nothing out on court, the team spirit was superb, and the weekend was a blast, we represented Hertfordshire in a massively positive way and created some amazing memories and established great friendships. We are looking forward to next year’s event already!
