Our men’s and women’s teams both made the relatively short trip to Pontefract for this season’s Inter County finals, with both aiming to stay in the Premier division.
Women’s Squad – Lizzie Little, Harriet Wight, Josie Barker, Emily King & Shae Paterson
The team were seeded for relegation as the 7th-ranked team out of 8, but that didn’t deter our players. Round 1 saw a match-up vs no.3s, South Wales A, where Josie, Emily and debutant Shae won at 3, 4 and 5 to cause the upset win and progress to the semis!
Yorkshire B, headed by WR #81 Asia Harris, proved a tougher test, and they progressed to the final with a 5-0 scoreline, seeing the Northumbria team drop into the 3rd/4th playoff against Cheshire, where wins from Shae and Josie just weren’t enough to see us claim bronze, but still a great performance to finish 4th and retain Premier status for another year!
Men’s Squad – Liam Gutcher, Andrew Shipley, Dave Barnett, Alex Robertson & Duncan Rutherford
It was always going to be an uphill battle for the men’s team, seeded bottom in the draw and without 3 key players in Michael Mattimore, Cai Younger and Chris Wiggins. However, that did open the door for a debut senior appearance for junior Duncan Rutherford.
In round 1 against 2nd seeds, Surrey, the final scoreline of a 5-0 loss may have looked one-sided, but it was anything but, as the team put up an almighty fight with 3 of the ties going to five!
There was little time to recover from the marathon matches, with the all-important round 2 match against Hampshire just around the corner, a must-win to avoid relegation. Duncan got the team off to a good start, with a win 3-1 on his debut, but unfortunately, that ended up as the team’s sole victory, going down 4-1 to confirm relegation to the promotional league next season.
It was a day of mixed results for our teams overall, but a highlight has to be seeing county juniors, like Shae and Duncan, progressing into the senior teams and performing so well!
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