ETTA English Leagues Cup Competition

J M Rosebowl 2011/12

The Cambridge Ladies team were once again drawn against strong opposition in the J M Rosebowl Competition, played at St Neots TTC on Saturday 14^th January 2012.

Their opening game was against former winners North Herts, with England No 9 Veteran lady Sandra Harper and Jan Laing.
After a tight first leg Harper got the better of Impington’s Helen Arnold in straight games, before Haverhill’s Maria Boulton levelled the score over Laing.
In the doubles the Cambridge pairing sneaked the first game 11-9, but lost the next two legs before fighting back to win the fourth leg. Unfortunately they couldn’t sustain that level of performance in the final leg, and North Herts led 2-1.
The topspin game of Maria Boulton was unable to go through the steady game of Harper in the next match and with Laing over coming Helen Arnold in the final match Cambridge went down 4-1 to the North Herts ladies.

With Leicester easily beating the ladies from Grimsby/Cleethorpes 5-0, we then had to take on the even stronger Leicester team of Joanne Kennedy and England No 5 Veteran lady Karen Smith.
Helen Arnold lost the first two legs against Kennedy, before clinching the third leg 12-10 and then levelled in the fourth.  Unfortunately the Leicester girl got the better start in the 5^th leg and put Leicester into a 1-0 lead.
Maria Boulton lost the first two legs against Karen Smith, but hit back to take the third leg and was unlucky to lose the fourth 13-11.
Again the previously untried Cambridge pairing performed superbly in the doubles taking the first two games 11-9 and 11-8.  However the experienced Leicester ladies wore them down to win the next three legs and take a 3-0 lead.
Karen Smith completed her maximum for the Leicester side overcoming Helen Arnold, before Maria Boulton beat Joanne Kennedy in four close games to make the final score 4-1 to Leicester.

North Herts had also beaten the Grimsby/Cleethorpes side 5-0 which meant both North Herts and Leicester would progress to the finals day, but would contest the final match of the day to find the zonal winners.

Our ladies took on the Grimsby/Cleethorpes side in the final match of the day.
Maria Boulton gave us a 1-0 lead beating Dorothy Fuller in straight games. Helen Arnold followed this with another 3-0 win over Angela Bray to put Cambridge 2-0 up.
The Cambridge pair clinched the match with a four game doubles win, before Boulton overcame Bray, and Arnold won the final match of the day, both in straight games to finish the match 5-0 winners and third in the group. This was a very creditable performance against such strong opposition.

Leicester clinched the top spot in the group, with a closely contested final match against North Herts. Sandy Harper’s victory over Joanne Kennedy was their sole success as Leicester ran out 4-1 winners.

Many thanks go to Maria and Helen for representing the Cambridge League and to Caroline Wright who supported them all day. Caroline was also in the squad, but her back injury has hampered her all season, meaning that she was there to play if needed.
Thanks also to Brian Freer who umpired all three of their matches, and to Val Parkes for organising the event.