The Team for this year’s Summer County Cup competing at The Avenue in Havant in Division two was:
Debbie Hale, Sophie Nelson, Hannah Crawford, Harriet Piercy, Oana Manole, Lisa Radford, Nadine Doutre, Natalie Sayer, Taro Keens
The other counties in division two were: Yorkshire, Surrey, Norfolk, Lancashire, Berkshire
Day vs 1 Yorkshire
The team for today was: Lisa and Harriet, Nadine and Natalie. Sophie and Hannah
It was an extremely hot day with some very close matches the wins came for Lisa and Harriet who won all three matches and Sophie and Hannah who won their matches against the respective second and third pair. Debbie came on and played the last round with Natalie at second pair. It was a very close day but Hampshire & IOW came out winning 5-4.
Day 2 vs Berkshire
The team for today was: Harry and Lisa, Sophie and Hannah, Natalie and Debbie
With temperatures getting up to 30° it was a very long hot match against Berkshire. The first round lasted three hours, with wins for Harriet and Lisa and Debbie and Natalie, who managed a very good win in three sets. Round 2 was looking very promising but in the end Berkshire won all three matches. Harry and Lisa managed to win their third round match taking our end of day results to 6-3 to Berkshire.
Day 3 vs Surrey
The team for day three against Surrey was: Lisa and Harriet, Sophie and Hannah, Taz and Natalie
We knew our match against Surrey was going to be a tough match as they had won all their previous matches. The Hampshire & IOW team had an amazing first two rounds with wins coming from all three pairs taking our result into the third round 4-2 up. Despite the team’s best efforts in scorching temperatures we were unable to convert any of the final round matches, which took our final score to 5-4 Surrey.
Day 4 vs Lancashire
With Harriet and Lisa both needing a rest today the team was changed to the following: Sophie and Hannah, Nadine and Debbie, Lisa and Taz
However with Natalie not feeling well first thing, Lisa came in to play with Taz for the first round. It was another very hot day, and against a very strong Lancs team. who were on a mission to get back up to Division 1, the girls struggled. Sophie and Hannah won our only rubber of the day in the first round taking our end of day result to 8-1 Lancs.
Day 5 vs Norfolk
Our team for today was: Lisa and Harriet, Debbie and Nadine, Sophie and Taz
This was must win day for us to stay in division two, but we were also dependent on how the Yorkshire vs Berkshire match went. Things were going well for the Hampshire & IOW team when one of the Norfolk third pair hurt her neck and had to withdraw from the remaining days play. This certainly helped the Hampshire &IOW, and going into the final round we were 6-1 up, with good wins from Lisa and Harry and Sophie and Taz. We were unable to take any other wins in the final round taking our end of day score 6-3. This win was not necessarily enough as Berkshire were doing well against Yorkshire. But we were very lucky that Yorkshire played hard in the last round and managed to win the last two matches also. This gave Hampshire & IOW more rubbers than Berkshire, which meant that Hampshire &IOW stayed in division two whilst Berkshire and Yorkshire got relegated.
Surrey won the division with Lancashire coming second so both get promoted back to division one.
This was without a doubt of the hottest County Week I've experienced. The play was of a very high level and the team are very pleased to have managed to stayed in division two.
I would like to thank everyone in the team for their contribution to the week and to the Avenue at Havant for their fantastic hospitality and courts.
Sue Espley, Team Captain