Women's British League 1st Weekend - 30 September-1 October 2017
Ladies’ teams struggle
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Both Cippenham teams struggled as the first weekend of the Women’s British League was played out at Kettering. Both teams were placed in Division 4 and so, by the regulations of the league, met each other in the first match of the weekend. This match resulted in a 5-1 win for the first team but after that any further league points eluded both teams although the first team were unlucky in losing by 4-2 three times.
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In the match between the two Cippenham teams, Wendy Porter got the first team away to a flyer with a 3-0 win over Carys Evans and then this lead was extended as Sue Hayes defeated Lucie Bouron but not before the younger star para player had won the third and fourth games to push Sue to a decider. Holly Long, who had made her debut in the Maidenhead League two days earlier, then engaged in a huge tussle with the more experienced Denise Weller. Denise won the first two games 13-11, 11-9 only for Holly to hit back 11-9 17-15. Four close games had indicated that the fifth would also be close and so it proved with Holly winning 11-9 to put the second team back in contention.
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The final three sets all went the way of the first team who eventually ran out 5-1 winners although Lucie and Holly did take a game each of Wendy and Sue respectively.
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The first team then embarked on a pointless run through the next four matches although they did have chances to snatch points. Wendy and Julie Dean both beat Georgia Harris as their team lost to Burton Uxbridge 3 4-2 and then Denise completed a brace over Christine Williams and Melanie Boulton but that was not enough as Cippenham lost to Stantek Old Spots by the same score. Wendy lost deuce in the decider to Williams in a set that might have seen Cippenham claim that elusive additional league point.
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Sunday morning started with a 5-1 defeat to Cliffedale Chandlers with only Denise registering a win against Susie Dilloway. Three other sets were lost in the fifth game including one at deuce. The weekend finished with yet another 4-2 loss, this time at the hands of XLNT Draycott 4. Sue beat Shirley Gelder and Denise followed up with a win against Aimee Evans but Julie lost to the same player in five games and with that defeat went Cippenham’s chance of a draw.
The Cippenham second team followed up their match against their first team with four more defeats, two by 5-1 and the other two by 6-0. Saturday’s results were 6-0 against Stantek Old Spots and 5-1 against Cliffedale Chandlers with the only highlight being Holly Long’s win over Jody Cox. Jemma Walker came into the team for the Sunday matches but even her intervention could not improve results as XLNT Draycott 4 ran out 6-0 winners while Jemma did beat Georgia Harris as her team lost 5-1 to Burton Uxbridge 3.