The final weekend for the county senior second team was deprived of its’ final fixture when Staffordshire withdrew but that still left matches against Lancashire 4 and Notts 3 to contend with, the former were defeated 7-4 for their first win of the season and the latter could not have been closer but resulted in a 6-5 defeat.
The team fielded was the youngest team for many a year with Cambridge Uni student Finlay Smith making his senior debut, as did PC player Jack Tilbury. Indeed, pretty much the entire team were either still in the PC, or were graduates thereof, which was really pleasing to see.
We trailed Lancashire 4 3-2 after the singles but that included a fine win for James Dodd 21-17 in the third and a comfortable straight sets win for Robyn Luckley. We could easily have led though with Mattie short going down narrowly 21-19, 20-22, 21-15 and Ellen Davison even closer, just being edged out 22-20 in the third.
James then combined well with Finlay in recovering from a set down to take the top string doubles, also 17 in the third. With Ellen Davison and Robyn Luckley, and Lexie Howard and Charlotte Graham, taking both ladies doubles and the second men’s being conceded the match was won before Lexie and Newcastle Uni student Jack Thorpe took the second mixed for a final score of 7-4 and a first win of the season.
The afternoon fixture against Notts 3 started well for North with Finlay a comfortable winner in two sets and James Dodd produced another combative performance in taking his match 21-17 in the third and Ellen recovered well after losing a tight opening set to win 11 and 10 for a lead of 3-2 going into the doubles.
Only two wins could be found though, both by Charlotte, with Lexie in the ladies and Jack Tilbury in the mixed for a final score of 6-5 to Notts. Nevertheless, twelve points on the day was an excellent return for the team and should leave them 4th or 5th out of 8 in the Division 3 North table depending upon how the un-played fixtures are treated which is subject to review by the SCC Management Committee.
