THIRD TIME LUCKY IN COUNTY CLUB COMPETITIONS

Having lost to Cove in both the Men's and Women's County Club Competitions, Oakley travelled this morning to Alton Social looking to do better in the Area Final of the County Mixed Top Club event, as they took on Cove the 2021 Champions. The early omens were not good. After 45 minutes play Oakley were trailing in 4 of the disciplines and in front only in the Men's Singles where Ashley Nethercliffe had a narrow lead over Leo May. A 1-4 defeat looked to be on the cards. Ashley's Singles was the first discipline to be decided with Ashley winnng a match that was tighter than the scoreline suggests. At this stage, with Alice Lovett losing 8-16 to Allyson Flint and the other Oakley disciplines struggling Cove remained very much the favourites. However, taking the mat up the green and playing short jacks, Alice fought back well against her very experienced opponent and when Alice too picked up a point it became a question of whether Oakley could, somehow, scrape a point from the remaining disciplines. With the Fours and Triples well down the only hope for that point seemed to be the Pairs where, for much of the match only a couple of points separated the teams but, in the event, it was a big comeback from the Oakley triple that was to prove decisive. Trailing 5-14 at 11 ends they scored on 5 of the next 6 ends to go into the final end 1 shot up and when they picked up a 3 to take the third point, the match was conceded by Cove. It was a match, where small margins were the difference between success and defeat but the Oakley players will be delighted that, for the first time the Club has reached the County semi-final of this event. Congratulations to all the players who have featured in our five games to date and, whoever is selected, we wish them good luck next Sunday when they play Fareham in the semi-final. Oakley scores: Ashley Nethercliffe won 21-9; Alice Lovett won 21-19; Leigh Allen, Ruth Bown and Nick Hardy won 20-16. When the game was conceded. Mary Varndell and Ric Newson were losing 16-19 and Janie Vickers, Sue Dixon, Sean Lassman and Graham Tompkins were down 10-22.