On a glorious Saturday morning Ranmoor Ladies headed over to
the exotic East of Sheffield to play Westfield Ladies. After arriving a little
early, the girls in a relaxed mood caught up on some sun bathing by the car
park before heading to the tropical sports hall.
The last meeting with Westfield was on Ranmoor’s home turf
and ended with a punishing 9-0 defeat to Ranmoor. This time the score line was
to prove rather different. With Westfield only being able to put out 2 pairs
Ranmoor had the advantage of being 3 games up before setting foot on court.
First on were Claire and Karen who easily beat Westfield’s 2nd
pair, 21-5 and 21-8. This was a good warm up game before heading back on court
against the considerably tougher 1st pair. Claire and Karen showed
some good attacking play; taking advantage of the oppositions’ weaknesses and
starting off well taking the first end 21-15. After a few comical moments with
a collapsing net they got stuck into the second game but alas it slipped away
from them, 21-18. Onto a 3rd end and after a great battle, the curse
of the ‘3 ends’ returned. The winning shot was a beautiful albeit gutting drop
by the infamous Amy, who took the end 22-20.
Meanwhile, Cat and Cindy had had a really tight game against
the first pair just losing the first end 20-22. Despite some great play by the
pair and some lovely back hand drops by Cat (someone’s been practicing J ), frustratingly for them they just lost the second end 15-21.
By contrast they picked off the 2nd pair 21-9, 21-9, taking the 5th
game for Ranmoor and securing match victory.
But Ranmoor was not finished there. Jane and Lesley followed
suit and on their debut pairing sussed out a winning style of partnership to
comfortably beat the 2nd pair 21-15 and 21-10. 6-2 to Ranmoor with
Jane and Lesley still to take on the might of the 1st pair. With the
smiling faces of Jane’s entourage cheering them on, Lesley and Jane headed back
on court and had a hard fought game taking the first end 21-18. In the second
game the opposition seemed to discover a bit of energy and focus and fought
back 21-7. Undeterred, Jane and Lesley regrouped and it was a drop-tastic final
game with plenty of exciting rallies and shrieks of determination but alas they
were slightly outclassed and the end went to Westfield 21-14.
Final score 6-3 to Ranmoor!
Well done Ladies.
Claire E
Claire E