A rare sunny evening for April recently saw Shotley and Benfieldside overcome Yarm in the grand final to register a fifth success in the NECWL since 2000.
The Consett club’s team one ran out champions by 5 sets to 3, leaving the Teesside club still waiting for a first success in the competition. The home side took a 3-1 half time lead, largely thanks to the comfortable women’s doubles win by Jane Speight (nee Morton) and Amy Wilkinson over Anne Clayton and Helen Salmon.
That rubber was particularly interesting as it pitched two long standing county stars, both now veterans, namely Jane and Anne, against each other, alongside an up-and-coming young partner. Meanwhile, Mike Dixon and Mike Brazell, were giving Yarm some hope by sharing the men’s doubles rubber with Phil Atess and Richard Wilson, these pairings also notable for being a veteran with young adult combination.
Shotley were made to fight in the second half as each of the visitors’ couples, Dixon with Clayton, and Brazell with Salmon, came good in the opening sets to equalise the sets score for three all, reducing the games deficit of eight to just four, at 30-26.
So all to play for: was Yarm on a roll and able to turn round a slow start in the first half? Could Shotley clinch the one set needed for victory?
In the end two more sets were gained by Atess with Wilkinson, and Wilson with Speight, leaving the near three-hour contest to finish in the chill as the sun was setting, by five-three and 43 games to 36.
The close final was highly praised afterwards by competition organiser Brian Thompson, who congratulated the home team on its success and complimented all eight players for a very high standard of play. He summed up the season’s event as lasting the longest ever and suffering some seven weekends of missed play since the middle of October. Under those circumstances it ended fittingly and well representative of the sterling efforts by captains and players of all competing teams.