Welcome to the Ladies Team page.

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!

Well done team!

2009 Season

Our first match of the season saw a victory over Frinton C 5.5 to 3.5, not being able to start the third round due to poor light.  Second match against Spring Lane A was a victory by the same margin, Ros and Hilary having to halve their last match, again due to poor light.  Well done team!

A strong Ladies’ Team made it 3 out of 3 so far with a 6-3 victory over West Mersea on Tuesday 4th June.  A perfect evening (with not too many midges about!) saw Angela and Anna, and Ros and Hilary win all their sets.

Our latest game was against Essex D, the only team we hadn’t met and this was going to be a crunch game.  Dedham Ladies just scraped home, winning 5-4.  Congratulations & well-played again team!

Having to miss the Murray-Wawrinka match was worth it to gain an 8-1 victory over Spring Lane Ladies.  We fielded a strong team, despite the absence of Ros through injury and only just lost the single set 6-8.  Five out of five so far; fantastic work team!

BJ and Mihoko seemed determined to get their money’s worth in our match against Frinton Ladies.  By the time they finished their first match it was drizzling quite steadily.  After much procrastination from the opposition, we moved to the hard courts. We eventually finished under the lights at about 9:30, with a win in the last match (yes, BJ & Mihoko again) to make it a resounding 8-1 victory.  This result has increased our leading margin in the league;  but with 2 matches to go, it could still go to the wire in our last match against The Essex who are currently second.

West Mersea only brought two pairs for our home match, so we were hopeful of a victory to seal our place as winners of League 3.  In the end, it was an emphatic 7-2 win.  Instead of the nail-biting close calls we’ve had in the last two seasons, we will go into our last match against The Essex knowing that we can’t be caught.  The captain is still very keen to make it 8 out of 8 however!  Well done and thanks to all the ladies who have played this season.  It could be quite a gathering at Frinton next month.

My wish was granted!  Despite the extremely blustery conditions, it was another emphatic win for Dedham Ladies, 8-1 against Essex D.  We’ve certainly dominated our division this year and let’s hope we can keep up the good work next season.  Congratulations and thanks to all the ladies again.