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1st V New Mills - 3rd June 08 |
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By Paul Clarke
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Tuesday, 17 June 2008 |
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Paul Mannion became a father the day before the match so congratulations to him, Fran and baby Isaac John. This meant that Paul wouldn’t play so Andy Hampson again played.
From starting the season by strengthening the squad with Simon Jones joining, we also effectively lost Tony Burgess so in essence have a slim squad of 6 players. Andy Hampson has now expanded the squad to 7 players- the step from 2nd team to 1st team is one of 7 divisions but Andy has made that transition and has been playing well, and performance in this match has confirmed this.
Paul and Mark played first couple again, mark having sped from Bolton to get to New Mills is not ideal prep for the match, however we won 6-3 6-1. Neil and Simon playing back together came up against a strong 2nd pair and the strongest of the New Mills pairings and we lost that one, but with Andy playing with Dave and winning against the 3rd pair, we were 4-2 up after the first round.
Paul and Mark still suffering a bit of car lag got a half against the 2nd pair, with Andy and Dave getting a half against the first pair and Neil and Simon getting a great win against the 3rds saw us take an 8-4 lead into the last round.
Of the last round Paul and Mark won vs the 3rds and despite a couple of close other matches that we lost, it was a win overall 10-8.
It was closer than we had hoped for but New Mills are a competitive side with good players and a win is a win. This to a certain extent gets the season back on track so we are now 3-2 and every match now becomes crucial.
Paul Clarke |
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