Upon travelling to the Bolton Arena in Lancashire for a weekend of matches, Dorset’s Ladies were in high spirits as they set about trying to better their result in last year’s competition when they narrowly kept themselves in group 4a.
On the Friday, their campaign began with a tough match-up against Durham & Cleveland. The teams shared the six singles matches three-a-piece, but Dorset’s Ladies were unable to keep up with their opponents in the decisive doubles matches. In the first of the doubles, Dorset came excruciatingly close to claiming an important win, but they were edged out by Durham and Cleveland, who took the match 6-2, 1-6, 1-0 [10-6] and the tie 6-3.
The team’s second match, on the Saturday, against West of Scotland was another close affair with the Dorset Ladies unable to keep up with their opponents from across the northern border. The team were still well in the match after the winning two of the six singles matches and the first doubles match to get to 3-4. But West of Scotland’s next pairs stepped up a level and they closed out the match to win 6-3.
Following that result, Dorset were now in the precarious position of having to avoid relegation by winning their final match, on the Sunday, against Somerset, who had also been beaten in both of their previous matches.
After the singles matches, two of which lasted well over two hours, the score was split at three all, meaning the doubles matches would decide the fate of both teams. The first two doubles matches were shared at one all, which meant that it all came down to the last nail-biting match played by Dorset’s number 1 pair, Jane Bingham and Anna White. They came agonisingly close to a vital win at a set all and 9-8 up in the championship tiebreak, but they were eventually beaten 10-8 meaning Dorset would unfortunately finish bottom of the group following the 5-4 defeat.
The team were given a tough draw and came up against some top opposition. Their performances showed that they can compete with some of the best teams in the U.K and that they will surely be up there with the best in years to come.
After the weekend’s action, the team’s Jodie Bratchell spoke of Dorset’s performance:
“I think the team had a few tough matches against Durham & Cleveland and West of Scotland but we fought hard in both.
“Everything came down to the final nail biting day. A couple of very good wins put the team 3-1 up after 4 of the singles matches and it looked like we were in with a shot of staying in the group.
“However, Somerset pulled it out of the bag with some huge performances in the final 2 singles matches to draw it back to 3-3. It went right to the knuckle at 4-4 with one doubles left to play which ended in a very tight 10-8 loss in the 3rd set tiebreak.
“We are hoping that the strength of the team will bring us back up into this group next year”.
For more information on the Dorset Ladies team’s performance in the AEGON Winter County Cup please Click Here
By Harry Lund