Knighton Park in Leicester hosted Division Senior 2C of the County Championships, which was played to a conclusion over the last weekend in November and saw Lincolnshire take the title with four straight wins in a five-team division.
As it turned out, the winners and runners up faced each other in the first round of matches as Lincolnshire faced Suffolk and comprehensively beat their opponents 8-2 with Adam Harrison, Alex Green, Mark Donoghue and Natalie Green all were unbeaten for Lincolnshire while for Suffolk only Clair Westlake and Rosemary Curtis were able to pick up one win each at the expense of Alkisti Olympiou.
Next up for Lincolnshire were Leicestershire No 2, who suffered worse than Suffolk as on-fire Lincs once again comprehensively beat their opponents. This time it was 9-1, with only a 3-1 win for Jess Birbeck over Olympiou (6-11, 11-7, 11-9, 12-10) that prevented a whitewash.
Cambridgeshire seconds faced the Lincolnshire juggernaut first up on Sunday morning and came away soundly beaten as Lincolnshire overwhelmed their opponents 10-0 as Cambridgeshire were only able to take two sets to a fourth game.
The final match for Lincolnshire mirrored their first as they scored an 8-2 win over Cambridgeshire No 1 and saw Cambridgeshire players win one set each at the expense of Olympiou as the other four Lincolnshire players all completed the season with perfect records.
Suffolk completed the division as runners-up by virtue of a 7-3 win over Cambridgeshire No 1, a final scoreline which looked unlikely when the match score stood at 2-2 as Suffolk started the brightest, taking the first two sets including Jake Collins beating Marek Pazdzior 3-2 (5-11, 7-11, 11-5, 11-9, 11-9).
Suffolk then reeled off the next four sets to lead 6-2 although with the match score standing at 4-2 Curtis took a narrow 3-2 (8-11, 11-8, 5-11, 11-7, 14-12) win over Tracey Sambrook which, had the set gone the other way, would have brought the sides to within a set. But this was not to be as Suffolk completed victory as the final two sets were shared.
Barry Snowden (press officer)
December 22, 2014