Ladies 1s in National League Playoff
Posted by Angharad Harris on 19 July 2021
On Sunday 18th July Great Shelford Ladies 1s travelled to Norwich to play against David Lloyd in the National League County Tier playoffs.
The afternoon did not get off to the best start, with three of the four Shelford players held up in traffic around Thetford meaning they arrived 30 minutes late for the match. The David Lloyd (non-playing) captain wanted to take walkovers for all three singles matches but, after Shelford offered to forfeit the first set in each match the David Lloyd players said that they wanted to play. After some brilliant performances by Keri Tobin and Olivia Hyde, the match was tied at 2-2 after the singles matches concluded.
In the doubles rubbers, everyone played really well and both matches went to third-set tie-breaks. Keri and Olivia unfortunately lost theirs but Angharad Harris and Ifthi Shareef held their nerve to win and the match remained tied at 3-3.
In a first attempt to break the stalement, two singles tie-breaks to 10 points, known as shootouts, were played. Angharad won hers 10-2 while Keri was narrowly edged out 9-11 and the match remained tied. Finally, the four players not taking part in the singles shootouts played a doubles shootout. Olivia and Ifthi both played some brilliant points but in the end narrowly lost it, meaning that David Lloyd won the match 5-4 and will be promoted to the Regional tier of the compettion from next season.
It was a really nice match with everyone playing well and enjoying themselves, despite sweltering temperatures inside the tennis hall. Well done to Keri, Olivia, Ali Burd, Angharad and Ifthi, who have all played their part in progressing this far. We wish the David Lloyd team good luck in next season's competition and will attempt once again to join them there next year.
