Runners-up for Cippenham

The Cippenham team in the Women’s British League returned from the final weekend of matches in Wolverhampton with medals gained from their runners-up position in Division 5. In fact, their only defeat came in the very last match against champions Wensum, a match Cippenham would have needed to win in order to wrestle the title from their opponents from Norwich.

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Cippenham started in second position in the league, level on points with Wensum, a position that was maintained with a 4-2 win over Stantek in the opening match. Julie Dean, Denise Weller and Sue Hayes put Cippenham 3-0 up before Denise lost to Suzy Robinson. However, Julie completed her brace against Lesley Slack to ensure Cippenham kept up the pressure with both points.

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Cippenham’s second match was against Sutton at Hone and a point was dropped in a 3-3 draw. Sutton went 2-0 up before Mary Heffernan got Cippenham back into the match with a 3-2 success against Carol Homewood. Julie then lost to Helen Shields but Mary claimed her second five-game victory over Heidi Smith and then Sue claimed the point Cippenham craved with a 3-0 demolition of Homewood.

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The first day’s play concluded with a 5-1 win over bottom team Halton 4. Sue and Denise won two apiece and the only loss for Cippenham came in the dead rubber right at the end when Mary succumbed to GB para player Fliss Pickard.

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The pressure on the leaders was maintained on Sunday morning as Cippenham beat Fastbats 4-2. Sue and Mary both secured braces while the unfortunate Julie was twice undone.

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That set up the final match of the season between second-placed Cippenham and top of the table Wensun. Wensum had gone through the weekend without dropping a point and thus were one ahead of Cippenham. Cippenham need to win the match to secure the title whereas a draw was sufficient for Wensum. Sue and Denise both lost their opening matches but Mary, against Isobel McGerty and then Denise, against Ella Barnard, restored parity and gave Cippenham hope. However, Sue and Mary both lost their final matches and Wensum ran out winners 4-2 to claim the divisional title.