The Hampshire & IOW Ladies Senior Team were contesting in Group 3b in Wrexham. The other counties in the group were: Cheshire, Northumberland and Essex.
The Hampshire Team consisted of the following players:
1. Lisa Handley
2. Selina Briggs
3. Thandiwe Mlambo
4. Christin Louw
5. Hannah Crawford
6. Debbie Hale
7. Freya Davies
8. Sue Espley
Day 1 vs Cheshire
Freya had a fantastic debut match winning 6-2 6-1, but unfortunately nobody else was able to take the win so after all the singles the Hampshire team were 5-1 down.
Lisa and Debbie lost in a tie break 3rd set. Christin and Selina played some great doubles against a tough pair, but it was Freya and Hannah won managed to win their match.
Overall result 7-2 to Cheshire.
Day 2 vs Essex
This was a much closer match, with all singles matches being hard fought. Freya and Hannah did really well winning both their singles and doubles, whilst Debbie and Lisa won their doubles which took us to 5-4 to Essex at the end of the day.
Day 3 vs Northumberland
This was a must win day to be able to avoid relegation, but the Northumberland team had stronger players arrive since their loss on day 1. Their number 5 player was the same rating as our number 1 player, so it was always going to be a big ask.
Despite massive efforts from everybody, the Northumberland girls were just a bit too strong to be able to put them under too much pressure. Lisa and Debbie did manage a good win in their doubles, and Freya took her opponent to 3 sets in the singles, but our result at the end of the day was an 8-1 defeat.
Sadly this meant that the Hampshire team were relegated to Dvision 4 whilst the rest of the group was very close as all 3 counties had 2 wins. Northumberland eventually won on sets and games.
It was a tough weekend for the Hampshire & IOW team, we definitely missed a couple of our top players, however saying that, the new younger players Freya and Thandiwe showed real maturity and innovation in their play which hopefully will develop further in the coming years.