With the new season looming, it’s time to fine tune the teams for this year
By Katie Garner
Filofax flipped open and caramel macchiato to hand; I was ready to choose the squads to represent Wychelm BC in the 2014/15 season of the Barking, Havering and Dagenham league. This year has been a toughie if I’m honest as we’ve had some major changes – a couple of players who have featured regularly in the squads for a number of years have now dropped out, and an injection of new members means interest in the teams has also been ramped up, leaving the awkward position of having too many people for one team but not enough for two. Enlisting the help of men’s captain Gary, we decided the only thing to do was to hit Starbucks and mull over our options.
l-r: Katie and David W
This season, we have two ladies pairs who will both play in Division Two, one mixed team featuring again in Division Two, as well as our men’s squad, who play in Division Four. With results last season dropping a bit more than I would like, again due to so many changes and switches, I’d really like to put forward a strong team for September and work towards raising our rankings and hopefully, moving up some divisions if at all possible.
So, with the decisions made, here are the guys and gals who will be representing you in league action this season…
Mixed Doubles
Captain – Katie
- Katie and David W
- Janet and Gary
- Clem and Het
Reserves:
- Barry / Stuart B / Dean
- Tracy / Diane
With only three ladies committing to playing full time in the Mixed team, our main problem here was streamlining the many men who wanted to compete in this category! It’s great that the Mixed is generating more interest, so hopefully we can attract some more women and maybe push out two teams in future years. At the moment though, we have had a very thorough swap around, reintroducing Het after time out due to a serious leg injury, and pairing him with squad newbie Clem. Jess’s replacement for half of the last season Janet will now be permanently playing with Gary since Jess has made the move to Southend for work, and in an attempt to keep injury prone Stuart B as fit as possible, we have replaced him with David W as my partner – we played very successfully together in May’s league tournament so we are hoping to recreate the magic. On the whole, I think we have some good partnerships here so hopefully we can blossom up to Division One.
Men’s Doubles
Captain – Gary
- David W and Dean
- Gary and Stuart B
- Het and Luke
Reserves:
- Barry / Nick / Mike T
The Men’s has also seen a shake up, with new duo David W and Dean stepping to the fore, again both playing excellently together in May’s tournament, reaching the quarter finals. Gary will remain partnering squad regular and big smasher Stuart B whilst Het once again re-joins the team with new teammate Luke. I’m keeping my fingers crossed that the team will go swimmingly to move from the bottom division.
l-r: David and Dean
Ladies Pairs
- Katie and Kay
- Janet and Clem
Again, with only four ladies who signed up for the pairs, deciding this was pretty standard really! Although both pairings are brand new this season, we have both been trying to get some practice over the summer, fine tuning our game plans, so hopefully come September we won’t be too rusty when we step up to the service line.
Guys, if you have any questions about fixtures, venues or times, or in fact anything match related, then please speak to our Match Secretary Frank, who will have all the details for you. Wychelm, show your support for your new squad!