Our Men’s O65 team won their stage 1 group to advance to the Inter County finals in Stourbridge/Wolverhampton on the weekend of 18th & 19th May.
The team consisted of Jon Evans (Tynemouth), Adrian Alderton (Hexham), Steve Ross (Concordia) & captain Alan Coates (Eldon) and were ranked as the #2 seeds going into the event, with Berkshire as the top seeds.
After an early morning and a long drive to the venue, the opening round match was against Northamptonshire. Despite some stiff legs, the team cruised to victory with Jon, Adrian and Steve all winning 3-0 to advance into the semis.
Somerset were our opponents in the semi-finals and we got off to an unfortunate start, with Jon retiring in the 3rd after struggling through the match with a calf injury. Alan then lost at no.3 to a very tricky opponent who never missed a thing! Adrian pulled one back, but it was too little too late as the team lost 2-1 to drop into the 3/4 playoff against Berkshire.
It was a battle of the top 2 seeds in the 3rd/4th playoff, and we were without Jon who had to sit out due to his injury. Alan and Steve put in valiant performances but were both beaten 3-1 by very strong, experienced opponents. Adrian stepped up to the no.1 spot and put in an excellent effort to come back from 2-1 down to win in the 5th, however, the team had to settle for 4th place.
A marked improvement on last year’s 8th place finish, but the team came away thinking what could have been if Jon hadn’t picked up an injury!
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