The team from Colchester was scheduled to play against five other League teams, namely, Enfield, Chelmsford, Bury St Edmunds and two teams from the Newport club, The Harriers and The Hawks, in the order given.
Unfortunately we were unable to provide a team to play against Enfield at Enfield. Travel times made it rather impractical and members were unwilling to suffer the difficulties of the M25 at the times required. Despite asking Enfield to come to Colchester to play, they refused so our only alternative was to concede the match to Enfield.
For our second scheduled match we played against Chelmsford on the 14th July, their team comprising three long standing opponents, Tony, John, Judith and a new player to the team Karen.
The Colchester team comprised Michael, Alex, Patricia and Graham. We lost both the doubles games and in the singles, Michael won 3, Patricia 2 and Alex and Graham one game each.
The final result was 11-7 games to Chelmsford and the hoop score was 102 hoops to Colchester and 95 hoops to Chelmsford, which indicates how close each of the games were.
Bury St Edmunds visited us on the 27th July and their team was made up of three regular players, Alan, Jan, Chris and a newby Mark. The Colchester team comprised of Hugh, Marian, Michael and Graham.
Despite a weather forecast for heavy rain, we managed to play most of the games in showery conditions before the very heavy rain arrived.
We won one of our two doubles games and in the singles, Hugh won 4, Michael 3, Marian 2 and Graham one game,with an overall result of 11-7 games to Colchester and the hoops finishing out at 116-85 to Colchester.
For the first time, Newport entered two teams into the league, and The Harriers team visited us on 1st August. Their team included Colin, Ann, Trevor and Nick, while the Colchester team included Hugh, Marian, Michael and Kev – the first time he had played in a B level league match.
We were not familiar with any of their players so it was an opportunity to make some new friends.
Colchester won both of their doubles games and in the singles game results, Michael won all of his games, Hugh and Marian won 2, and Kev 1.
The final result for the day was again 11-7 games to Colchester and the hoop difference was 110-107, also to Colchester.
We look forward to our next and last game against the Newport Hawk team on 22nd August at Newport.
Report supplied by Marian, Team Captain.