With the first round draws selected, it’s time for the team to get battle ready
By Katie Garner
At the last league committee meeting, we rolled up our sleeves and got stuck into the lucky dip style selection process where the quarter final stage match ups are chosen. Going round the table, each committee member plucks a folded piece of table hiding a club name – the first two will be the first match, with the first team chosen hosting the games. This continues until all of the club names have been selected and the matches all in place on our very important pieces of paper.
The clubs involved have to put forward a team of five men and five women to play – this includes three men and three women who will play in the matches and then two reserves of each. These will be the only people who can play in the Challenge Cup. If clubs play any of their members who is not on this list, then the matches with those specific players involved are forfeited.
So, with our squad names sent off, I thought I’d let you know who would be representing Wychelm in our Challenge Cup foray, kicking off with an away game against Redbridge 1.
Men:
- Stuart B
- Gary
- Barry
- Nick – reserve
- Luke – reserve
Ladies
- Katie
- Jess
- Helen
- Janet – reserve
- Tracy – reserve
Jess and Gary
For the Challenge Cup each player will play a mixed game each, and then either two ladies games or two men’s games depending on their sex. Our usual tactic here is to play our mixed team as the main squad, to try and have as much success as possible in the mixed games played, as we always organise the players so we play with our normal partners. Jess and I partner each other in the ladies pairs as well so hopefully we’ll be able to pull something out of the bag as well. The same would apply to Stuart B and Gary who play together in the men’s doubles.
Last year, we played Harold Hill in our opening match, which we won. The handicap definitely equalled things out a bit for us here and gave us a much more level playing field which in the end saw us go on to the semi-final stage. We then had an away game against Emerson Eagles 2, where for the first time, the handicap worked against us. This time it was us playing catch up, however the distance was too great to travel, meaning that we lost. We also had poor Het succumb to another bout of his leg injury here, seeing him collapse to the floor in pain, meaning he couldn’t finish any of his games.
We’ll do our best as always and see where we end up! Keep your fingers crossed we can get through to the semi-finals once more!