Nottingham beat Southport 4-3 (Longman Cup)

Nottingham beat Southport 4-3

[<<] [>>] by Bob Thompson at Nottingham [^]

A very strong & experienced Southport team, combined handicaps 24, played a much less experienced Nottingham one, combined handicaps 48.5, on the Highfields lawns, Nottingham, in dry but chilly conditions with strong winds.

At lunch, Nottingham were leading 2-1, the newly formed Nottingham pairing of Michael & Viv overcame the strong husband & wife duo Brian & Carol, with Michael making full use of his partners bisques. In the last ten minutes
Michael pegged his own ball out leaving Carol to make the best use of a 3 ball break from her position at 2back, everything was going along smoothly until an underhit shot for position at penult let Viv onto the lawn to peg her own ball out with 10 seconds remaining.

The afternoon session saw two wins for both teams, Michael continuing his good form by completing his singles game in double quick time +25 & Ian completed his second win of the day +19. Brian & Alan won their singles against Nottinghams match debutants Viv & Shirley.

It had been noted that the afternoon games saw all four Nottingham players on the lawns for quite some time, indeed a Southport player mentioned that there might just have been something in the lunch ……..

Michael Finnigan (4.5) & Viv Staley (18) beat Brian Lewis (7) & Carol Lewis
(3.5) +7

Ian Dovey (8) beat Alan Farrell (9) +9

Shirley Ashtari (18) lost to Tony Thomas (4.5) -19

Michael Finnigan (4.5) beat Carol Lewis (3.5) +25

Ian Dovey (8) beat Tony Thomas (4.5) +19

Viv Staley (18) lost to Brian Lewis (7) -9

Shirley Ashtari (18) lost to Alan Farrell (9) -17

Nottingham scraped home against Northampton in GC Murphy Shield

Northampton won the doubles and one of the morning singles to be ahead at an early lunchtime, with all three matches being just two games. Nottingham went further behind by losing the first game in each of the afternoon matches, but then finally woke up to win the tie at hoop 12 in the third game of the final match to finish, when Jane peeled Cathy from long range while trying to clear her from the jaws of the hoop.

Nottingham names first:

Ian Vincent and Patricia Duke-Cox lost to Les Heard and Pete Dowd 3-7 2-7
Chris Jackson lost to Jane Stevens 4-7 6-7
Cathy Turski beat Marilyn Robinson 7-5 7-3

Ian beat Les 5-7 7-6 7-5
Patricia lost to Pete 6-7 5-7
Chris beat Marilyn 5-7 7-1 7-4
Cathy beat Jane 5-7 7-6 7-5

In the third round (having had a bye), we meet the winner of Hunstanton v Enfield.