Hird & Cooley Victorious Again
03/04/23: Karen Hird & Charlotta Cooley won their eleventh consecutive Ladies Championships in association with Advanta Wealth at Stowe on Saturday.
K.Hird & C.Cooley beat A.Lumbard & E.Scoones 3-1 (12-8, 9-12, 12-5, 12-9)
The final of this year's competition was played at Stowe School for the first time ever, with the Eton courts now out of action due to refurbishment work. A good number of spectators were in attendance - plus the online audience watching via the livestream - and they were treated to an entertaining and high quality final in wonderful surroundings.
These two pairs know each other well and have now faced off in six of the last seven finals; last year's match was the most one-sided of those contests, with Ashley Lumbard still on the post maternity leave comeback trail. This year saw Ashley back much closer to her pre-motherhood level and with Emily Scoones firing on all cylinders they posed a considerable threat to the long-term champions.
It didn't look that way during the early exchanges, however, as Karen & Charlotta raced out to an 8-0 lead almost immediately, returning cuts with venom and forcing a series of mistakes that left the crowd wondering if they were going to be in for a repeat of last year's one-sided encounter. Emily & Ashley soon settled down, however, and although they were unable to claw back the initial deficit, they pulled the score back to 12-8 and did enough in the rest of the first game to show that this was most certainly not going to be a walkover.
Emily & Ashley took the momentum into the second game and won it to 9, a combination of strong cut returning from both players, Ashley withstanding the pressure being exerted on her at the back of the court and Emily producing some effective and well-timed attacking volleying causing Karen & Charlotta to throw in a few uncharacteristic errors and unable to withstand a strong finishing burst.
You don't win eleven finals in a row, however, without being able to respond to a setback and Karen & Charlotta struck back hard in the third game, cutting much better, cutting out the mistakes and piling the pressure back on to their opponents. They took the third game 12-5 and when they took a 5-1 lead in the fourth it felt as if the end was nigh. Ashley & Emily dug deep, though, not just once by levelling at 5-5 but twice by turning 5-9 into 8-9. Could they find one more run of points to take the match into a fifth game? Again, however, Karen & Charlotta produced their best Fives just when they needed it, getting back on serve, scoring a couple of points to get to game ball and then converting shortly after to take the game 12-9 and the match 3-1.
This was a tremendous final, harking back to some of the earlier battles between these two pairs and raising hopes of another fierce contest for the trophy next season. Or are there any other pairs out there with the ability and dedication to get themselves into the mix?
For Karen & Charlotta, the big numbers continue to rack up. Charlotta has now equalled Kerry White's all-time record of twelve wins, with Karen now in joint second just one behind. As a pair they have now won together eleven times - a record as well of course - and all consecutively, with power to add.
Our thanks go to Stowe School for hosting the competition, to Advanta Wealth for their continued sponsorship, to Chris Davies for presenting the prizes, to Mandie Barnes for organising the competition, to the spectators who came to Stowe and made it such an excellent occasion and to the four players for producing such a magnificent contest.
