Welcome to the Ladies Team page.

2012 Season

Ladies A
Tuesday 1st May	vs.	The Essex B	Home	6.30pm
Tuesday 12th   June	vs.	The Essex C	Home	6.30pm
Wednesday 20th   June	vs.	Phoenix A	Away	6.30pm
Tuesday 26th   June	vs.	Phoenix A	Home	6.30pm
Thursday 12th   July	vs.	The Essex B	Away	7pm
Tuesday 7th   August	vs.	Col. Lawn A	Home	6.30pm
Friday 10th   August	vs.	Col. Lawn A	Away	6.30pm
Thursday 23rd August	vs.	The Essex C	Away	7pm

1st May Essex B  result 1.5-7.5

Our first match was always going to be a tough one, as the Essex B team came down from the Premier division last season. However, Dedham ladies battled bravely (in the dark!) & there were some very close sets. Their captain eventually & reluctantly agreed that it was too dark (it was worth your repeatedly saying “I can’t see,” Christine!) and we halved the last round to give us some points.

Ros & Hilary 3-8,8-9, 0-0

BJ & Julie 6-8, 0-0, 4-8

Christine & Gina 0-3, 2-8, 8-9

 

 

2011 Season

Ladies
Tues. 3rd May	vs.	Phoenix A	home	6.30pm
Weds. 1st June	vs.	Frinton B	away	6.30pm
Tues. 14th June	vs.	Col Lawn A	home	6.30pm
Friday 17th June (rearranged for 28th June)	vs.	Lexden Sq. B	home	6.30pm
Monday 4th July	vs.	Lexden Sq. B	away	6.30pm
Weds. 13th July	vs.	Phoenix A	away	6.30pm
Monday 18th July	vs.	Col. Lawn A	away	6.30pm
Tues. 9th August	vs.	Frinton B	home	6.30pm

11th August Lexden B

This was our 3rd attempt to play this match and we needed to win 3 sets to avoid relegation. Fortunately the rest of the team weren’t suffering from the captain’s nerves! 2-1 to Dedham after the 1st round, then a very tight 2nd round. Christine & Gina won 9-7, Anna & BJ lost 8-9, and Ros & Hilary were 6 all in a tie-break when the heavens opened – divine intervention or just typical English weather? There was no possibility of resuming so we agreed to halve that set and all of the 3rd round. This means we finish the season 12 points ahead of Lexden so will not be relegated.

We may not have won many matches this season, but 4 of them were only lost 4-5. There is great depth to Ladies tennis at Dedham now, so thanks & congratulations to all those ladies who have participated in matches this season. The aim was to consolidate our position in Division 1 after 2 successive seasons of promotion, which thankfully we have achieved.

9th August Frinton B

Frinton B are unbeaten so far this season, so this match was always going to be “challenging,” especially with our first pair unable to play (Shiho still injured & Mihoko away). But the rest of the team rose to the challenge and the end result was 4-5 to Frinton, so valuable points in the relegation struggle with Lexden R&F. Anna & BJ only narrowly lost 6-8 to their first pair, but that’s the story of our season! We did well to complete 3 rounds in the gathering gloom before we enjoyed another excellent tea – BJ ought to be designated official Dedham cake-maker!

18th July Colchester Lawn

It never rains when you want it to! Despite torrential downpours north of Colchester, there wasn’t a drop on the “lawns” at Eudo Road. We were always going to struggle to cope with the “interesting” bounces, not to mention the Force 10 gale and winter-like temperatures!  We did well to get 4 sets; and the tea was excellent.  Thanks to Gina for stepping in as a last minute replacement for the injured Shiho.

13th July Phoenix

The match against Phoenix was played on a rather gloomy and cold evening.  We were sadly minus our captain, but stand in Gina, together with Christine, gave our opponents a very good run for their money, and how they managed to play their last set in almost total darkness was amazing!  Our 2 wins of the night were due to the stalwart efforts of Mihoko & Shio.  Ros & B-J played with increasing confidence as the evening progressed, resulting in their opponents having to put in rather more effort for their wins.

4th July Lexden Squash

Having been rained off twice for our home match, we travelled to Lexden on a glorious evening. Despite trying to poke her eye out with her own racket, Mihoko, with Shiho, proved to be the stalwarts of the team . Once again, they won all 3 sets; which just goes to prove that getting a mention in the local paper hasn’t gone to their heads! Ros & Hilary narrowly lost 2 sets 6-8, & BJ & Christine struggled to cope with Lexden’s rubbishy 3rd court, a net that was too high & a bonfire! So unfortunately it was a 4-5 loss but a lovely tea!

14th June Colchester Lawn

With a full team and a lovely evening, the captain was quietly confident about this match! And so it proved, with our 1st pair (Shiho & Mihoko) winning 3, 2nd pair (Ros & Hilary) winning 2, and 3rd pair (BJ & Christine) winning 1. So a convincing 6 – 3 win as our first victory in League One. The captain’s quietly confident it won’t be our last – or is that tempting fate? Watch this space!

1st June Frinton

Playing league leaders on grass was always going to be a challenge, but thanks to sterling work by Shiho & Mihoko, in winning all their sets, we came away with 4 points. One wonders if their ability to communicate in a language not understood by the opposition helps – but no, it was their determined and excellent play! We have now played the 2 strongest teams in our division and shown that we can give a good account of ourselves. Roll on the next match.

May 3rd Phoenix

Christine & BJ taking about 2 hours to finish their first round meant there was no chance of even starting the 3rd round for our first match in Division One. They narrowly lost 7-9, as did Ros and Hilary against Phoenix’s first pair. But wins over their 3rd pair by Ros & Hilary and Julie & Mihoko gave us valuable points.  We’ll be building on this!

2010 Season

With Kirby withdrawing at short notice and the Dovercourt match rained off, we did not play our first match until 11th June.  This was against Essex C, league leaders having beaten both other teams.  All sets were tightly fought, Christine and Hilary winning all 3, Lilian and Kelly winning 1.  So it depended on Julie and Mihoko in their last set against the 2nd pair to determine the result.  Battling through the dark, they won 8-5, to give us a 5-4 victory in our first match in Division 2.

Dovercourt were let down by one of their players and could only field two pairs for our second match of the season.  We were the stronger side anywayand managed a convincing 7-2 win.  Julie and BJ just narrowly missing out on making it 8-1 when they lost a closely fought tie-break.

Edible flowers, rice balls, beetroot sandwiches and strawberries & cream – The Dedham Ladies certainly know how to put on a good tea.  The tennis was just as impressive in our third match of the season.  This was against Phoenix B on June 29th.  The result was 8-1 to Dedham, with the one set only being narrowly lost 6-8.  We have now played and beaten all the other teams in the division, but still have all the return matches to play.

No edible flowers but we’re obviously eating something magical!  On July 12th we played our re-arranged match against Dovercourt and thrashed them 9-0.  This was a convincing performance from all pairs, with particular thanks to Christine who stood in at short notice for the unwell Shiho.  How lovely to have such a large squad of exceptional players.  Keep it up ladies!

Our penultimate match against Phoenix proved rather tight, with 4 close sets and the third round not played due to poor light.  Christine and Shiho won their 2 sets convincingly to give us a 5.5 to 3.5 victory.  It’s going to the wire with promotion depending on our last match against the Essex at the end of August.  They will have home advantage, but Dedham Ladies are adaptable, and carpets and lights won’t faze us (I hope).

Fortunately we were playing indoors for our final match against Essex C.  With Ros & Hilary winning a tense (well, Hilary was) tie-break, we were leading 4-2 going into the third round, so only needed one more for victory.  Unfortunately, the first two results went to the Essex, but Shiho & Anna proved too strong & had an emphatic victory over their second pair to make it 5-4 to us.  That meant we have won all our matches and are top of League 2; so it will be promotion for the second year running.

Fantastic effort & well done to all the ladies who have played for Dedham this season.  Just a final word – don’t park by Comet at Tollgate at night, or your car will be locked in!  But with a nifty bit of driving over the kerb, through the bushes & along the pavement, BJ managed to head for home!