Pendle Win the Secretary’s Shield (18 Oct 09) by David Pollitt
Pendle beat Ealing 5-2 in the Secretary’s Shield Final at Northampton on 18 October.
Teams:
Pendle: Roger Schofield (3), Andrew Webb (4.5), David Pollitt(Capt) (7) and Robin Delves (11)
Ealing: Nigel Polhill (0), Colin McKenzie (6) Suzanne Clarke (8) and Roger Mayhew (12)
Could Pendle win this competition for the first time? It needed the players to rise at 5.30 am and to leave Robin’s at 7 am to arrive at Northampton before 10 o’clockstart. We made it with 15 minutes to spare. It was good to find we had support from Pendle’s founder and present country member, Norman Hicks, who now lives in the Northampton area.
All the games were double banked with the lawns playing fairly fast but they were undulating. In the morning Andrew built up a good lead but his opponent decided it was time to start using her bisques, so with 1.5 bisques she took her first ball round and then eventually finished the game with 2 bisques still in the ground, without Andrew adding to his score. A player to watch!
In the doubles Ealing won, so it left David to win to keep Pendle in with a chance. We ate our lunch in the open with it being such a good day. After lunch Roger set the tone with a comprehensive win using his bisques to maximum effect to win +26. David looked to be heading for 2nd win, but was finally beaten by Ealings most impressive player. So it needed Robin and Andrew to win for Pendle, to lift the shield. This they both did without much nail biting by Roger and David.
Well done Pendle and a big thank you to all the drivers especially Robin and everyone who played.