04/020/07 -- Buckingham

As “Player of the match” - Gaz Calcott (PMSL - that’s pissing myself laughing) has told me to hold back on my match reports, I have taken his comments on board, digested, cogitated and basically here goes…

Well, how do you sum up a match that nearly ended with handbags flying, it kind of kicked off friendly, however 6-5 to Gloucester is never a good start, so it got to a point where it was vital to come through to believe, we had to win……

And so we DID, team spirit again prevailed…. Nothing like singing when you winning or dancing doing a bum shuffle like you found the Captain and vice captain doing trying to raise the team spirit, talking of spirits, thanks Captain Katie for the expensive round of drinks, my Jack Daniels went down like velvet nectar!!

We blamed the tables, the dead balls, the huge f**king chunk in the white ball, however we found a way to win even though we had our excuses we DID NOT play unfairly, we didn’t forget to shake hands pre game, (that so annoys me) we didn’t shout out of turn whilst their players were cueing up, or debate for an hour about not being able to play a shot because of the marvellous snooker Ali had put her opponent in..... asking for a re-rack - “Read the rules love!”

Playing for Warwickshire Ladies is about being a team, we are a team, we win some we lose some but we still support each other and me like all other players, feels pain when the frames go against you and you cant seem to bag that frame for the team, it hurts, especially when you want it so much… and god I’m feeling we do....

No, we did not resort to sore loser tactics; we held our heads high got behind each other and played our f**king hearts out.

Can I just say now, that when your 21 -21 it’s no fun fair ride, being on the last two

deciding frames, its utter butt clenching stuff, but thanks to Julie Britain and her nerves of steel and the young slightly intoxicated Hazel, we won the last two critical, vital, life threatening frames to clinch the match. We should have never got into that position, not after the infamous win against Northants but we should take on board what we learnt from this match and make sure we carry this through to the re-match.

Remember we are better than that, we don’t need to cheat, don’t need to adopt time keeping copy cat skills of other teams , don’t need to result to under hand tactics, we have something much better, we have fantastic team spirit, we encourage each other, we have a laugh and most of all I know we all want it…it’s there we just have to work hard to take it...

Match Facts

Ali won 4 out of 4, her patience was very tested…..to a point I have never seen Ali actually rear up unless her vodka ran out?

Julie Britain managed a tremendous 3 out of 4... Despite all of the distractions incurred during the final frame.

3 out of 4’s for Cat Jarvis, Vicky “Sambuca” Moore who was nursing the mother of all hangovers, (Happy Birthday Vicky) and Tracy Layfield...

The end result another win for the Warwickshire Ladies, here’s looking to the Worcester match.

Over and out, the acid tongue typist x

What is it with these teams that makes it so hard to get on with them. It just seems to me that every time we play somebody from south of Stratford, we end up having a f**ing argument!

The absence of a few A team regulars meant that players had to be borrowed from the B squad, which left us struggling a bit all round.

The situation wasn’t helped by the “Len Ganley of the pool circuit”, Steppy, giving away 2 shots every time a Gloucester player looked to be in trouble – needless to say it all nearly kicked off between the players.

Apart from the A team’s match appearing like an episode of “WWE Smackdown” it was a close affair throughout the first 3 sections with Gloucester just in front 17-16 going into the final set of 11 frames.

Then Gloucester won 7 frames in a row to clinch the match – final score 25-19.

Roger Hunt, fresh from winning the Seniors event in the European championships, managed to get 3 out of 4 to win the man of the match trophy whilst nobody else got more than 2 frames. Back to the drawing board for the Worcestershire match me thinks.

The Warks B team were left a little under strength with the departure of some of their usual squad members to the A team, but they started well and were holding their own throughout the first 3 sections. The scores had been 6-5 in all three sections so Gloucester led 17-16 going into the final section.

Gloucester took the first 3 frames to go 20-16 in front, Russ Blinco pulled on back only to see Gloucester increase their advantage to 21-17. Chappers and Ross Krupa made it 21-19, Gloucester won another, Benji pulled it back to 22-20, but it was all in vain as Gloucester won the remaining 2 frames to win 24-20.

An excellent 4 out of 4 from Martin “Benji” Groves earned him the man of the match trophy with Russ Blinco getting 3 out of 4 and Ross Krupa getting 2 out of 2 on his debut.

We’re definitely lacking the strength in depth it would seem because this was a team that we should have beaten quite comfortably.