A close fought battle between ourselves and Woking at the front of the field produced a thoroughly exciting competition at Nonsuch Park, with supporters of both teams unsure as to who had actually won this one. The final published result showed Woking as the winners on count back. Their last scorer being over the line before our last scorer.

 

Interestingly, using the Mob Match scoring method, the result would have showed in our favour.

 

Straggs          1, 3, 5, 7, 10. = 26

 

Woking         2, 4, 6, 8, 9.   = 29

 

The other interesting fact from this result for Woking, shows and demonstrates how important a role their B team played in turning the result in favour of their A team who would have otherwise lost the match. They had two B team scorers in front of our final A team scorer, and without them the match result would have been 77 to 79 in our favour. Well worth remembering that your 100% effort further down the field, may feel like a lost cause to you but to the team manager and the team, that last vest that you take out may be the difference between winning or losing. 

 

So, how would our A team have fared had they replicated their performance in the Division 1 match?

 

Sarah 16th  Sophia 23rd  Liz 54th Juliet 70th Dee 100th  total points 263 this would have placed us in 14th position in the match and 13th of 16 A teams.

 

Factor in our current strongest team on paper and we could easily finish amongst the top 5 teams in Division 1. So, looking ahead we have to be positive and ensure we maintain the momentum that will see promotion to Division 1 and then to be as strong and as confident as we possibly can in order to establish ourselves amongst the top teams in the league. It may seem a big ask, but if we start now to think ahead and look forward to the challenge, there is no reason why the Straggler`s Ladies shouldn’t be competing with and against the top clubs in the south of England next season.

 

  

Optimistic maybe!  Realistic yes!

         

We had 20 ladies out for match 2:

  

A great result and well done to all 20 Straggler Ladies running today.

We finished joint first with Woking having 79 points each. They were given it on count back see above....their last runner in just before ours.

Early lesson in knowing who you need to beat may help you give that final push for the line.....get to know the vests and the identity of all whom you race against especially those having a chance of snatching victory from you.

We do remain top of the league, but it is important that all of you who performed so well today give the same effort and a little more in the remaining two races which are after Christmas.

We were a little unlucky today as we lost Sarah Winter at the last minute having  not fully recovered from her tremendous run in Frankfurt  and also Heidi hadn’t quite recovered from a foot injury that she picked up in match1. And it appears that Sophie lost a couple of places due to either a sleeping marshal or course direction not as obvious as it maybe should have been.

Sarah K put in a great captains performance and showed again her desire and determination to be back at the front of the pack.....Sophie settled well from her early disappointment supporting Sarah as the second scorer for Stragglers and a great run from Liz Killip secured her a third scorer position and 1st V55. Juliet Cleghorn and Dee Smale completed our scoring 5 with Juliet 1st V50 and Dee doing a great job in hanging on to that all important 5th position especially as she was still recovering from a lingering cold.

 

The B team not to be out done put in their own outstanding performance finishing in 3rd place amongst the B teams and 14th of 44 A and B teams. Team positions were 48th Phyllis Flynn, 51st Alexis Prince, 58th Liz Fraser, 62nd Clare Graham, 134th Betsy Jones. With great support from 144th Mary Hyde, 147th Ramona Thevenet, 179th Julie Garner, 212th Sabine Duffy, 226th Mirella Genziani, 233rd Venessa Lok, 235th Lynda Chase, 239th Chrissie Glew, 251st Gail Caruana, 260th Helene Hill.

 

League standings after 2 matches - Straggs 122 - Woking 181 - FOT 195

 

Kevin Best
Ladies Team Manager