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Women's British League 2nd Weekend - 22-23 January 2022

Both Cippenham teams had disappointing results when the Women’s British League concluded in Wolverhampton at the weekend.

The young B team started well enough in Division 4 with a 4-2 win over Stantek Old Spots. Lucie Bouron found playing in the number one spot for Cippenham a bit too hot to handle and it was left to her young teammates, Rachael Iles and Anna Piercey, to win their sets in order to secure victory. Both beat Lesley Slack 3-0, Rachael beat the Stantek number one Suzy Robinson 3-1 while the pivotal encounter was between Anna and Kim Selfe. After winning the first two games, Anna saw her lead disappear after two deuce games but then finally defeated her opponent 11-9 in the fifth game.

While this was going on, top of the table Ellenborough had surprisingly lost to St Neots, a result which saw Cippenham overtake their Enfield-based rivals at the top of the table. The concluding match of the first stage for Cippenham was against Ellenborough and the resultant 3-3 draw was enough the keep both teams in their same positions with Cippenham leading the way at the top. Rachael was Cippenham’s star player in this match, winning the opening set against Turnay Ekrem. However, by the time Rachael returned to the table Cippenham were 3-1 down and it took a supreme effort from the young Cippenham starlet to give her team a chance of a point with a last-ditch deuce in the fifth win against Aneta Kula. Anna then took full advantage of that chance, winning 3-1 against Rebecca Hurrell.

The division then split into two halves. Unfortunately, having led the division at the end of stage one, Cippenham B’s form disintegrated and they lost all three of their matches in the second stage. St Neots were strengthened by the inclusion of Natasha Hurd and beat Cippenham 5-1 with only Lucie’s win over Chloe Pryke counting for Cippenham. Rachael and Anna both won one as Cippenham lost 4-2 to Leeds with Rachael being especially unlucky to lose to Rebecca Savage 13-11 in the fifth and then the return encounter with Ellenborough was also lost 4-2 with Rachael scoring Cippenham’s only wins.

Meanwhile, the Cippenham A team, playing in Division 3, were having a difficult time. Of their five matches, they drew two and lost the other three, eventually finishing bottom of the eight-team division, having started the weekend in seventh place. Cippenham finished the first stage with a 4-2 defeat to Halton third team and a 3-3 draw with Sutton at Hone. Mary Heffernan won three of her four individual encounters across these two matches while Julie Dean won two. After the split, Cippenham started the second phase with a 3-3 draw with Graham Spicer Club with all three players registered one win each. This was a very close match with four of the six sets requiring a deciding game and Julie was especially unlucky to lose the final set 13-11 in the fifth against Chui-Que Wong. Halton then again defeated Cippenham 4-2 and then a two-woman Cippenham team, missing Mary, lost 5-1 in the return match with Sutton at Hone with Sue Hayes registering Cippenham’s only success against Helen Shields.

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