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News:
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23rd Nov 2008
Classy Cleveland Celebrate
Cleveland
1st team secured promotion from division 1A to the Premier division of the
Senior County Championships after a competitive weekend’s play at Draycott
Table Tennis Centre in Derbyshire.
Cleveland
convincingly won their first three matches against
South Yorkshire, Derbyshire 2nd and Warwickshire but a 6-4 defeat
to
Yorkshire
left them in 3rd position on 6 points, trailing
Yorkshire (8 points) and
Lancashire (6 points) overnight.
The “rose” counties fought out a 5-all draw on
Sunday morning, allowing the Cleveland team,
strengthened by the arrival of England no.1 Paul
Drinkhall fresh from the German Open, to move within
a point of the lead by defeating Northumberland 8-2.
The strong
Cleveland squad of Andrew Wilson, Steven Bailey, Karen Shepherd,
Chloe Whyte, Bryn Drinkhall and Paul Drinkhall moved
up another gear as the event reached its climax,
thrashing
Lancashire
9-1 while
Yorkshire
could only draw with Leicestershire. With one round
of matches remaining,
Cleveland
hit the top of the table for the first time, level
with
Yorkshire on 10 points but leading on set difference.
While Paul may have been the star attraction of the
meeting, it was in fact his brother, Bryn, who
helped provide one of the highlights of the weekend
in
Cleveland’s
crucial final tie against Leicestershire. In one
unforgettable rally during their 5-end contest, Bryn
forced Chris Rogers away from the table with
superior top-spinning and proceeded to rain down a
series of venomous smashes to both forehand and
backhand that
Rogers
somehow spectacularly returned - some from almost
beyond the surrounding barriers. Upon seeing yet
another smash come back, Bryn changed tack and
attempted a drop shot but could only find the net.
Although the rally finished with an error, the
effort was met with a round of applause from all
around the hall, players and spectators alike. Bryn
Drinkhall may have lost that skirmish but he won the
war, prevailing in the 5th and his team-mates
completed back-to-back 9-1 victories.
In the other hall,
Yorkshire
defeated
South Yorkshire
6-4, the high-spot of which was a stunning 5-game
thriller between Simon Noutch and Matt Dodds.
Yorkshire’s
Noutch won an epic 4th end 18-16 before going down
4-11 in the deciding game as Dodds’ dynamic defence
and counter-attacking style proved more effective.
Despite remaining the only undefeated team and
finishing level on 12 points with
Cleveland,
Yorkshire
ended the weekend in 2nd place courtesy of their
inferior set difference.
Division 1A - Top of Table
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P
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W
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D
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L
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F
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A
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Diff
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Pts
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Cleveland
1
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7
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6
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0
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1
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52
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18
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34
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12
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Yorkshire
1
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7
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5
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2
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0
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47
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23
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24
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12
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Lancashire
1
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7
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4
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1
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2
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41
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29
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12
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9
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South Yorkshire
1
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7
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4
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1
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2
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40
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30
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10
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9
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Leicestershire 1
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7
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3
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2
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2
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38
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32
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6
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8
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At the other end of the table Derbyshire 2 saw their
brief stint in division 1 broken at the earliest
opportunity as they were demoted along with
Warwickshire. The host county, featuring Draycott
regulars David Arrowsmith, Helen Rainford and
Theresa Richardson, endured a punishing campaign,
losing heavily to
Yorkshire,
Cleveland,
Lancashire
and Leicestershire on the Saturday before being a man down on Sunday
morning and suffering a similar result at the hands of
South Yorkshire.
The Derbyshire team showed improvement in their last-gasp 4-6 defeat to
Northumberland and were able to win their wooden-spoon elimination battle
with Warwickshire but the 7-3 victory counted for little and both sides
suffer relegation back down to division 2, one season after being
promoted.
Division 1A - Bottom of
Table
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P
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W
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D
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L
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F
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A
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Diff
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Pts
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Northumberland
1
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7
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1
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1
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5
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23
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47
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-24
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3
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Derbyshire 2
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7
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1
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0
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6
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21
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49
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-28
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2
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Warwickshire 1
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7
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0
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1
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6
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18
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52
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-34
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1
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12th Nov 2008
Rhowbotham Makes His Mark
Congratulations to Mark Rhowbotham
(pictured above with match secretary, Helen Rainford)
for picking up the Draycott and Long Eaton Table
Tennis Club’s Achievement of the Year Award, the Roy
Bayliss Shield.
Having never played the sport of table
tennis before last year, 42 year old Mark was little
more than a beginner going into the start of the
2007/2008 season…but steely determination, limitless
enthusiasm and no little natural ability, made it a
debut season never to forget.
After visiting the Draycott Table
Tennis Centre in the search for an all-season
pastime, Mark soon developed a passion for the game
and quickly became a member of the club, present at
most if not all available sessions. (If there was an
award for attendance, he’d win that too!) His
eagerness and aptitude for the sport made him a
prime candidate to lead a team of similarly
inexperienced novices (Long Eaton 7) in
Derby’s division
3 and Mark revelled in the role of captain. A 73%
win ratio would be pretty impressive under any
circumstances but when you consider that it was
achieved in Mark’s first year of playing and as part
of a struggling team, it makes his success all the
more remarkable. His team finished one place above
bottom of the league, but it would be true to say
that the team would have been well adrift if not for
their captain’s consistent heroics.
As well as leading by example around
the table, Mark is renowned for his friendliness on
practice nights. He’s invariably the first person to
welcome a new player to the centre and will have a
knock with anyone. Add in the fact that he
volunteers to be the duty officer on alternate
weekends and you can see why Mark is held in such
high regard within the club.
Following a strong start to the new
season by his team (now Long Eaton 6), Mark stands a
chance of picking up more silverware within the next
year and if that were to happen, it couldn’t happen
to a nicer man.
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19th Oct 2008
Junior Girls Just Want to Have Fun
Draycott and Long Eaton junior girls’
team finished the opening weekend of the Junior
British League on top of the Premier division table
after enjoying an unbeaten start to their campaign.
The team of
Emma Vickers,
Lucy Davidson
and Charlotte Airey acquitted itself well, winning 4 fixtures and
drawing 1 at the meeting in
Wolverhampton.
The girls opened their account with a
5-1 defeat of Ballina. Emma beat Kirsty Wilson 3-0
before Lucy did the same to Yolanda King. When
Charlotte overcame Chloe Nealon and Emma dispatched King (both 3-1) the
win was safe.
Charlotte suffered a 0-3 reverse at the hands of
Wilson before
Lucy won the final match against Nealon.
Kingfisher suffered a similar fate,
going down 5-1 to the Draycott team, although they
weren’t helped by only fielding 2 players. Lucy beat
Ayonija Sunderarajan before Emma won matches against
Rachel Farquhar and Sunderarajan without losing an
end.
Charlotte, ranked 23
places below Farquhar, was unable to cause an upset
but with the aid of 2 walkover wins, Draycott
claimed the 2 competition points.
Emma and Lucy continued their good
form when they met Ormesby, beating Chloe Whyte and
Natasha Milliken in straight games, respectively.
Charlotte got in on
the act, with a 3-0 whitewash of Katherine Le Fevre.
Emma was made to work harder by Scotland’s Milliken
before eventually winning in the 5th game and
Charlotte lost to Whyte but Lucy restored order with
another comprehensive 3-0 victory over Le Fevre,
making the final score 5-1.
The Draycott junior girls notched up
yet another 5-1 result when they played the Aqua
Serv Club Mid-Cheshire trio of Rachel Baker, Rebecca
George and Corinne Bebbington. Emma and Lucy didn’t
lose an end, while
Charlotte gained a good 3-1 win over Bebbington before losing out to
George.
The final tie of the weekend was the
most intriguing as Draycott and Long Eaton faced the
only other unbeaten team in the division, Grantham
Tornadoes. Number 1 junior, Emma, got the team off
to a good start with a hard-fought 3-2 win over 5th
ranked Mary Fuller. Lucy lost her 100% record to
England no.3 Emily Bates (1-3) but
Charlotte put
Draycott back in front when she triumphed 3-2 over
Dominique Jones. However, the Grantham side were not
prepared to give up without a fight. In-form Bates
gave Emma her first defeat of the competition and
Fuller took the next rubber to put the Tornadoes
ahead by 3 matches to 2. Fortunately, Lucy kept her
nerve to supply a solid 3-1 win and earn a draw for
the team.
That valuable point kept Draycott and Long Eaton in
first position in the league, narrowly ahead of
Grantham and 2 points ahead of Ballina. Emma
finished the weekend joint top of the averages on
90% (tied with Emily Bates), while Lucy scored 88.9%
and Charlotte 44.4%.
Another local player in action was
Sophie Neil,
for Batts Raquetsports in division 1. She won 7 of
her 10 matches and her team is sitting in 4th place,
only 2 points behind the leaders, Bridge Club.
The Draycott and Meadows junior boys’ team had a
less successful weekend after international call-ups
for Sean Cullen and Liam Pitchford left the team
under-strength.
Daniel Lowe
and Mark
Naylor made the trip but were unable to overcome
the mandatory 2 walkovers per fixture that resulted
from being a player short. Daniel won 6 of his 10
matches and Mark won 2 but the team suffered 5
defeats to sit bottom of the premier division.
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12th Oct 2008
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Abbie makes waves in Liverpool
Draycott’s rising star Abbie Milwain enjoyed a successful weekend at the
City of Liverpool Junior 4* event as she reached the quarter-final of the
Cadet Girls competition and was runner up of the Cadet Girls Band 1
competition.
In
the Band 1 Cadet event on the Saturday, Abbie won her group by defeating,
England
no.15,
Bethany
March (3-0), Emily Bolton (3-0) and
Ireland’s
Ashley Givan (3-2). In the last 8, Abbie disposed of Georgina Barnes 3-1
to set up an intriguing semi-final contest with the Welsh no.1 cadet and
no.8 senior, Megan Phillips.
Abbie lost the opening game 10-12 and had to work hard to avoid falling 2
ends behind as she edged a second deuce game, 12-10. This close 2nd end
proved to be the turning point as Abbie ran away with the 3rd and 4th ends
with comparative ease. She completed the confidence-boosting victory 11-7,
11-7.
Chloe Whyte, ranked 2 places ahead of Abbie in the U15 standings at no.6,
awaited in the final. Although the Draycott youngster was able to take the
early initiative to claim the opening end 11-5, she was unable to keep her
momentum and lost the next 3 games 10-12, 6-11 and 9-11.
Following her encouraging runner-up performance in the banded event, Abbie
was eager to achieve a similar result in the un-graded Cadet Girls
tournament. Despite losing to Megan Phillips’ sister, Angharad, the group
stage proved no obstacle as Abbie completed impressive straight-game wins
over Emily Ross, Estelle Purkis and
England
no.9, Evangeline Collier.
In
the last 16, Abbie faced a tougher task against
England
no.2 and the competition’s top seed, Lucy Davidson. It looked bleak for
Miss Milwain when Davidson took a 2-1 lead, but Abbie raised her game to
seal an outstanding 3-2 fight back. Unfortunately, in the quarter-final
stage, Abbie ran into the in-form Chloe Whyte again. The 3-1 score from
their earlier meeting was repeated and Chloe advanced all the way to the
final before losing out to Yolanda King.
Abbie returned the following day to compete in the Junior Girls events,
but didn’t fare as well in the U18 category. After a couple of narrow
defeats, she fell at the group stage of the banded competition.
In
spite of a heavy defeat to no.3 Junior (and top seed), Karina Leferve,
Abbie overcame
England
no.17, Kirsty Wilson, in a gripping 3-2 encounter to advance from her
group in the un-banded event. Abbie then faced
England
no.14, Haylee Potts, in the second round and put in a heartening display
before going down narrowly, 2-3.
Despite falling short of winning the Cadet titles, Abbie will be hopeful
that her solid showings will be reflected in the national rankings,
enabling her to improve upon her current positions of 8th in the Cadets
and 25th in the Juniors.
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30th Sept 2008
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Senior British League at Draycott was
“Best ever”
As I’m a member of the
Draycott & Long Eaton Table Tennis Club, you might think I’m being
somewhat biased, conceited and delusional with a headline like that. But
in fact, those words came from Tony Meredith who has been refereeing and
coordinating British League events around the
UK
for the last 6 years. When he praises your organisation and facilities,
you have to start taking it seriously.
How times have
changed. It wasn’t so many years ago that founder members, Roy & Jon
Bayliss, desperate for somewhere to play, stumbled upon a dilapidated,
drafty, poorly-lit old boxing hall. The astonishing transformation into a
state of the art dual-hall centre that is now one of the most prestigious
table tennis venues in the country would not have been possible without
the support of the Draycott Parish Council, Sport England and the hard
work of the club’s dedicated volunteers.
It’s a sign of how far
the Draycott club and centre have come that on the 20/21 September they
were proud hosts of a Senior British League weekend event for the first
time in the club’s history. Teams from Division 1 (North) and Division 2
(North) were in action on both days, meaning that 16 teams and upwards of
64 players were in attendance.
The Draycott club
coped admirably, led from the front by Brian Savage, Terrie Savage, Graham
Gobey and Malcolm Allsop. Everything went like clockwork and there were no
problems with any aspects of timing, organisation or catering, which
prompted Tony Meredith and his assistant Shane Bradley to express their
satisfaction with the venue and the handling of the meeting.
They weren’t the only
ones to find the Draycott centre to their liking, as players, officials
and visitors alike were pleasantly surprised by the levels of care and
professionalism afforded them. From the cleanliness of the facilities to
the addition of wall-mounted scoreboards and from the ad hoc electronic
admin support to the hot food that was served all day, the efforts of
Draycott’s volunteers were met with approval. Indeed, the only complaint
was about the length of the queue for Terrie Savage’s bacon sandwiches!
The only thing that
could have made the weekend better from a localised point of view would
have been a few more Draycott-based players taking part in the event.
Top-10 junior girl, Caroline Hallows, representing Halton in Division 1,
was the only player competing who also plays for a Long Eaton & Draycott
team. Unfortunately for Caroline, Halton lost their Saturday fixtures
against Drumchapel Glasgow and Derwent before bouncing back to beat
Fastbats 6-2 on Sunday morning. Finally, Halton were edge out 3-5 by
Rotherham
in an intriguing and sometimes prickly affair, leaving them in 6th
place.
Derwent look to be
strong candidates for promotion to the Premier Division after winning all
of their matches with consummate ease, although Grantham are only a point
behind after four matches.
An interested
spectator of Division 2 was England No.1, Paul Drinkhall. He kept a keen
eye on the progress of his brother, Bryn, who played a starring role for
Northfield.
Bryn Drinkhall won all 8 of his singles matches without losing an end.
Northfield are sitting pretty at the top of the table on 8 points while
Murrayfield and Shffield occupy 2nd & 3rd
respectively.
After such a
successful British League debut, the Draycott & Long Eaton Table Tennis
Club is looking forward to the challenge of hosting similar events in the
near future.
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28th Sept 2008
Women’s British League
The Draycott & Long Eaton women’s team has competed
in the first weekend of the Women’s British League held at Hinckley. Draycott were without the services of the England No.1
Junior Emma Vickers who has signed to play for Ljungsbro in the Swedish Women’s
Elite Division which makes her exempt from playing in the Women’s British
League.
However, Draycott
still fielded a strong team including 2007 National Junior Champion Melanie
Farquhar, former England No.3 Junior Caroline
Hallows and the team was captained by 7 times Derbyshire Ladies Champion
– Jane Vickers.
The team played extremely well in all five of
their matches winning two matches - against Peniel
A and Poole ladies, losing one against
the league leaders Astor ladies and gaining two draws against DHS
Progress and Irish Ladies. This sees the team lying in a comfortable 3rd
place in the league table. Caroline Hallows was the top performer winning
7/10 matches with Jane Vickers winning 5 /10 and Melanie Farquhar winning 4/10
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Team
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Won
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Drawn
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Lost
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Games For
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Games Against
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Ends For
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Ends Against
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Points
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Astor Ladies
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4
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1
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0
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23
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7
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74
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35
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9
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Team Peniel A
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3
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1
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1
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19
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11
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67
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43
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7
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Draycott & Long Eaton
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2
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2
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1
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16
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14
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58
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55
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6
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Irish Ladies
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2
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1
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2
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12
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18
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48
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64
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5
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Poole Ladies
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1
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0
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4
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11
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19
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44
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65
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2
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DHS Greenhouse Progress
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0
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1
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4
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9
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21
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40
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69
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1
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Two
other Draycott ladies were in action over the
weekend for teams in Division 3 of the Women’s British League. Helen Rainford represented East Midlands Ladies team while Abbie Milwain, England No.7
cadet, made her British League debut for Uxbridge.
Helen
had a disappointing couple of days, as her team won only 1 of its
fixtures to stand in 5th place after 5 matches. But Abbie played brilliantly to record 7 wins from her 10
matches, including a superb 3-2 victory over Helen (11-9 in the 5th
end). Uxbridge sit 2nd in the table behind the formidable Drumchapel Glasgow team.
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28th Sept 2008
2008 Derby City Sports Awards
Emma
Vickers has won the Derby City Sports Awards – Junior Sportswomen of the
Year.
The ceremony
took place at Pride Park Stadium – home of Derby County Football Club in
front of over 300 invited guests. The award was in recognition of Emma’s
achievements during last season which saw her win the National Junior
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