The season started well, with the special coaching/support sessions for the ladies being very well attended with 20 ladies attending at least one of the sessions. Barry Smith, Mike Poole, Jean Webb and Ted Webb helped at some of the sessions.
In the Top Club, we played against Herts, Watford and again, found ourselves against a very strong team. Rhianna had a comfortable win which got us off to a good start. The Pair did outstandingly to win against a very good couple, 21-17. Both our triple and four struggled against good teams and were not able to keep their losses low enough to give us a win. Still, a 2-2 draw on rinks was an improvement on last year!
In the SADLBA triples League we did less well but still finished in the middle of the table. Our away teams, which had done so well, last year, struggled on some heavy greens. We will continue to open this league so more ladies can experience this level of competition.
In the Herts Club League we came 1st in our section, winning all four of our matches. We then went to the south Division finals at Harpenden, beating Harpenden in a very close match in the morning. We played Hatfield, in the afternoon, which was much harder as they had a very strong team. Three of our team had played five matches in three days, including some tough matches at Leamington and this was a match too far! We were not at our best and lost in a friendly but hard fought game. Hatfield went on to win the HCL trophy so at least we went out to the Champions.
In the SADLBA Double Rink, we progressed through two rounds, after a bye in the first round and reached the final at Potters Bar. We were short of two players on one rink and this time both rinks struggled with the heavier green so we were runners up again. Never mind, we did well to reach the final for the second time.
Overall it has been a very good season and the ladies have made huge progress and also enjoyed their games. More have signed up and played in the District matches and higher competition is only going to improve our game. We can look forward to continued success next year.
Val Challacombe 26th September 2022