Once again, the Ladies entered the County Top Club. Last year saw the team of ten players progress through the rounds of this competition to reach the semi-finals where we were narrowly beaten by Royal Leamington Spa who went on to lose to Welford in the County Finals. We were hoping we could do as well this year or even better perhaps so were rather disappointed to learn that we had been drawn again the current champions, Welford in the preliminary round! The odds were certainly against us, Welford having a number of both County and England players in their squad.
Last night we arrived at Welford to play, with little expectation; the squad was comprised of many of us who had played in last years’ contest but included two relatively new bowlers too for whom this was a whole new experience, and a somewhat daunting one. But we were all determined to give it our best shot.
Play started soon after 6pm and within twenty minutes the black cloud which had threatened since the start decided to rain down on us and continued to do so for most of the evening. Gloomy, wet conditions, bulky waterproofs, and for those of us who are “visually challenged” , poor visibility, were all less than helpful, but we stayed positive and played the best we could. In the singles match, Jacqui built up a good lead from the start only for Hannah Smith to get into her stride and pull the match back to within a shot. But Jacqui dug in as always and took the spoils 21 -19. In the pairs, Chris Hurst and Diane Harvey played a tight game against a strong pair from Welford but were triumphant as were our triple so WBC were triumphant winning 3 of their 4 matches. A fantastic result!
We will play either Stratford B or Whitnash in the next round on 8th June so watch this space. Is this our year I wonder,,, one step at a time I think...
Di Wood
Last updated on by Christina Hurst