Longman Cup – Nottingham beat Bowdon 5-2 (22/5/06) by Michael Finnigan
There was no over-confidence amongst the Nottingham team when, after a morning’s rain sodden play at Bowdon, three close games resulted in Nottingham leading three-nil. Been there before, and learned the hard way that this does not guarantee an overall win! The lead had fluctuated in all three of the games, but eventually William Gee, in an immaculate Longman debut, pegged out his opponent’s forward ball and managed to stay clear to win +3. The Nottingham pair wrapped up the doubles soon afterwards, but Michael Finnigan kept everyone waiting for lunch until a lucky hit in after time led to his winning on the “golden hoop”.
In the afternoon William demonstrated the ability of youth to adapt quickly to the fast lawns of Bowdon (at least, Nottingham thought they were fast, but the home team assured us they were the slowest they had been all season) by beating Lorna Frost with considerable panache, thus securing the overall result in Nottingham’s favour. Just as well, as Barry Keene found his form to beat Martin Beacon, and Michael Finnigan was overwhelmed by Janice Moir. However, Nigel Hames-Keward added to the Nottingham total by wining another hard fought game against Steve Reynolds.