On Saturday 7th November Cambs3 went off for our first set of matches against Beds2 and Northants3. With all the teams now playing on the same day, any higher teams needing subs meant we would need sub players. We lost Rachel and Bertrand a few weeks in advance to higher call-ups. I then went off to Peterborough to practice with Liz earlier that week to try and get a partnership going and (with a healthy spoonful of irony) then rolled my ankle, so that ruled me out. Then, to really rub that in, Liz and Campbell were called up last minute to higher teams anyway - which left us scrambling a bit. Luckily we could get strong subs in for all but 1 of those spots – I’d run the reserves list dry and had asked at least 8 additional players but I just couldn’t find a last man, so I had to man up and play :) . No resentment directed at our higher teams though, that’s just the way it goes with this new format!
Beds2 were a tough bunch. They finished just below our 2nd team last year so was a bit of an ask for us to beat them. Tom was the only one to win his singles, though Alex had a very close 3ender. Kerry and Jacquie took their ladies, and Mike and I took our men's, but we lost the rest of the games resulting in an 8-3 loss.
The Northants3 game went a little better. They fielded a team with some strong juniors in which was good to see. Kevin also showed up to watch, but we twisted his arm to help bail Mike out of his singles, who was unpracticed having not known he was playing singles until the day before the match heh. All 5 singles games went our way in 2 ends, with some won to single digits! The levels followed suit, as cambs took all 4 games comfortably. Kerry had to play against her partner in the mixed – I don’t know if that made her play better or worse. Regardless, Kerry & Tom played well to win. The combination of straps and painkillers was really helping my ankle to I swapped in to play mixed instead of Thas who hadn’t quite gelled with Jacquie as we’d hoped having never played together before. Jacquie and I reunited our junior county partnership to success and won in 2 ends. Final overall score of 11-0 win!
All in all a really fun day with good games, a really sociable atmosphere, and a friendly team who helped support each other throughout. Massive thanks to all our subs, but particularly Jacquie who filled in at really late notice, won 3 /4 of her rubbers, and put up with me in the mixed :). Roll on December 12th!
(Simon Parker)