Ladies N/national Championships,
St. Paul's School, Barnes, December 8th 2013
This year, the Ladies N/nationals went smoothly, albeit after a rocky start because of the organiser being stuck in traffic due to an accident. However, it was an excellent day of Ladies fives, full of varying abilities and amazing passion for the game, writes Alexandra Steel.
This year’s participants spanned the country, Kathleen Briedenhann and Tessa Mills from Eastbourne, Alexandra Steel and Karen Hird from London, Maddy Raynor, Karina Valieva, Lora Misikova and Kate Shilina from Rossall, Melanie Whitehead from Devon and Amy Flood from Aldenham. I was especially impressed that the girls from Rossall changed their flight times home to accommodate the competition. It just goes to show the love of the game is ever growing!
The day started off with the doubles as per tradition! It was a round-robin due to only having 5 pairs. Each game was to 15 and all highly enjoyable to watch.
Melanie and Amy – newly paired together – worked well and enjoyed their games, getting used to each other’s play within only a few games. Amy showed great potential with her hard hitting from her right hand and quick movements around the court. Certainly one to watch out for in the future.
Third and fourth place was fought out between Melanie & Amy against Lora & Maddy. This was a close game with good rallies and humour throughout the match. In the end Lora and Maddy won through. Well done to them.
The final of the doubles was between Alexandra & Karen and Kathleen & Tessa: two games of hard hitting, good rallies and great effort from both pairs. Kathleen and Tessa, an experienced pair, put to good use their known strengths against first-time partners Alexandra and Karen, who used their experience of volleying and turning shots to their advantage. The match was fought hard by both pairs and was a lot of fun. Kathleen and Tessa finally won 15-10 and 15-7.
The singles started during the final of the doubles, as a few ladies had to catch flights home. It was as exciting as the doubles, with all ladies showing a high standard of fives. The singles was a knock-out round with all girls playing one game to 11. The semi-finals were fought between Tessa and Alexandra (Eastbourne and London) and Kathleen and Karen (Eastbourne and London). The former game was extremely well matched, with two friends showing strong power, similar styles and consistent hitting. It was a thoroughly exhausting game with the end result going to Alexandra 15-7. Karen played very well against Kathleen, but Kathleen's experience and hard hitting won out in the end and took the game 15-0.
There was a singles plate played by Maddy, Lora, Amy and Melanie, round-robin style, with Maddy emerging as the winner. Great stuff.
This year, the final was between two friends, Alexandra and Kathleen. It was an excellent match to watch as both girls tried to bring their different experience to the game to win the points. With both girls very well matched, points were hard to win, as extremely long rallies dominated the game. Alexandra hit some fast serves and back-wall shots, but Kathleen's amazing wrist flicks aimed the ball down the line fast into the corner, from where it was hard to return. Alexandra battled tenaciously and made it very hard for Kathleen to win, especially towards the end with seven long match points! Kathleen was relentless, though, and eventually won 15-1, 15-2, but as many of the spectators and players said, the scores did not fully reflect the effort by both girls during this game. Well done Kathleen!
It was wonderful to see such talented young girls show so much enjoyment in the game and credit has to go to Kate Shilina from Rossall who played the whole day with a horrible cold. I hope to see them all enter more competitions in the future.
Well done Ladies. A truly fantastic day of Fives
RESULTS
Singles (full result to come)
Final: Briedenhann bt Steel 15-1, 15-2
Plate: Raynor
Doubles (full results to come)
Final: Briedenhann & Mills bt Steel & Hird 15-10, 15-7
Plate: Misikova & Raynor