Tues 19th August, Leicester Report by Arthur
Four teams contested this event: Ashby, Leicester, Nottingham and Pinchbeck. It was the first time the event had been held at Leicester, and with only two lawns available the format had to be adjusted somewhat. Each match consisted of a doubles and a singles game, with three rounds of the teams playing each other. Different doubles pairings were used for each round, with the teams free to choose to play conventional or alternate strokes doubles. One substitute was allowed for each team, and Ashby and Leicester took advantage of this in the last round, to allow a player to attend an evening commitment, and to give a new player a chance to play competitive AC.
The Ashby team was Arthur, Andy and Mick, with Richard substituting Mick for the last game.
The result was decided on match wins (i.e. both singles and doubles games won), game wins, who-beat-who, then net hoops. The rounds were run with set finish times, which meant that the event finished roughly when expected – and before it was dark! At the end, every team had 3 game wins, but only 3 teams had one match win (Nottingham finished 1-1 in all their matches despite having a much superior overall hoop difference of +27). The three teams had all beaten each other, and so it came down to net hoops and Ashby emerged as the winner after a few minutes checking the results. Ashby’s hoop difference was +8, against Leicester’s -10 and Pinchbeck’s -25.
Ashby will therefore represent the East Midlands in the Secretary’s Shield national competition next year.
Match results:
Ashby 1-1 Nottingham; Pinchbeck 0-2 Leicester
Ashby 2-0 Leicester; Pinchbeck 1-1 Nottingham
Ashby 0-2 Pinchbeck; Leicester 1-1 Nottingham
