So – right from the minute we worked out who this years opposition would be (on the car journey home from Sunderland after last year’s promotion), we knew we were going to have to dig deep to pull off some magic.
With 7 of our players currently at Universities in the USA and not returning for Christmas break until mid December, 2 injured and 2 with pre-planned commitments, I was actually scared at one stage, that at the age of 47, I was going to have to step on an indoor court to play singles against someone my children’s age that hits the ball harder than Sharapova! But with 2 days to spare and thanks to some really flexible team players (Claire Godber and Ellie Horton) who rearranged work to be available - and making their senior county debuts, we set off on the long road to . . Grantham!!
Friday saw us against Buckinghamshire (current Summer County Champions) and we were short of Livvy Tomkins and Fran Benson who had school commitments. As always a fantastic performance by Sarah Wright to win against the incredibly talented 14 year old Lauren Armstrong 5-7, 6-3, 6-3 and Emily Crowe, on a break from her Masters degree at Exeter playing really solidly to beat Georgie Sanders 6-0,6-4 meant a 4-2 deficit after the singles. Sarah and Steph Barling held their 3rd pair doubles to end in a loss of 6-3.
Not to be deterred and with the arrival of Liv and Fran on Friday night we faced Yorkshire on Saturday who had beaten Warwickshire in a close battle the day before. Fran opened with a win over Kim Atkinson after a 3 hour battle of the minds closing out 4-6. 7-5, 6-4 but sadly, despite epic attempts by Emily Crowe against formed British No 1 Katie O’Brien (4-6, 6-7) and Sarah against another really top class 15 year old Serena Nash (and yes she plays just like another Serena we all know), Nottinghamshire managed to take only 1 more rubber with Sarah and Steph winning their doubles at 3rd string.
So Sunday - Warwickshire – and on arrival we were informed by the ref that actually if we could win 6-3 and Yorkshire won 8-1 then we wouldn’t get relegated!!!!!!!! So with a team talk akin to – ‘Just go for it’, a very mature performance by Claire Godber secured a fantastic result against the experienced Anjoli Foster taking us in to the lead. This was followed with wins by Sarah and Livvy Tomkins making it 3-3 after the singles and all to play for especially as Yorkshire were leading 5-1. Sarah and Steph took their doubles easily to edge the lead again and Yorkshire went 6-1. Talk about tense!!
Sad to say in the end we got the victory 5-4 but were relegated by just 1 rubber. For Division 2a, and with 11 players unavailable – this is a tribute to the team and the effort they put in over the weekend. Sarah Wright never fails to amaze everyone with her talent and if there was an award for outstanding contribution to the county she’d be right at the top of the list. Emily Crowe playing at No 1 held her own with the UKs best and the younger talent coming through showed great potential for future county weeks. A great weekend with lots of supporters coming to cheer us on and a most amazing venue. Many thanks to all.
Sarah Usher