The Hampshire & IOW Men’s Team was in Division 2 of the Summer County Week Championships held at The Avenue Club, Havant this year.
Representing Hampshire & IOW were: Karim Aouchaoui, Josh Girling, Josh Goodall, Liam Hignett, George Houghton, Mike Johnson, Miles McDowall, Jake Norris, Harvey Reed, and Paul Scullard.
With many players away or injured we were lucky to have Josh Goodall for a few days. Our aim was to try to stay in the Division with such an inexperienced team.
Day 1 v Cheshire
The team was:
1 - Goodall / McDowall
2 - Aouchaoui / Houghton
3 - Johnson / Girling
The team was hugely bolstered with Josh Goodall playing, we went 3/0 up to start then we were pegged back to 3/3 but came through 5/4 at the end, a good team performance and result.
Day 2 v Cambridgeshire
The team was:
1 - Goodall / McDowall
2 - Aouchaoui / Houghton
3 - Johnson / Girling
Cambridgeshire were a quality team and it was going to be a struggle to win, but we started off well in the first round with 1 win and match points in the other and up in the 3rd set in the 3rd match. This was the highest point we got to as we lost 7/2 by the end of the day.
Day 3 v Derbyshire
The team was:
1 - Aouchaoui / Houghton
2 - Johnson / Girling
3 - McDowall / Norris
With Josh Goodall leaving the night before, the team had a near impossible task against a Derbyshire team that had won Division 1 two years before. We went down 9/0, but it did give a chance for the newbies, Liam, Jake and Harvey to get a feel for future County weeks.
Day 4 v South Wales
The team was:
1 - Aouchaoui / Houghton
2 - Johnson / Girling
3 - McDowall / Norris
This was the big match for us as the winner of this was likely to stay and the loser go down. We played well but their pairs were too strong for us and we lost 7/2. Tough day at the office!
Day 5 v Yorkshire
The team was:
1 - Aouchaoui / McDowall
2 - Scullard / Houghton
3 - Norris / Hignett
We needed a 9/0 win to stay up, which was very unlikely! We ended with a 5/4 win, but that wasn't enough and we were relegated to Division 3.
It was a tough week and the Division was far too strong for our team without the top players, but a good learning curve for everyone and obviously we need to learn quality doubles play to compete with these teams when we get back in to Division 2 in two year’s time!
Julian Godfrey, Men’s Team Captain