2002 Ladies Championships

Howard Wiseman reports:

The National Championships were held rather later than usual!! Tucked in just before the new season commenced in mid September. Eighteen ladies took part, and it was especially pleasing to see the appearance of Karen Nunn (a recent leaver from Mill Hill School), as well as Sophie Palmer and Juliet Browning from Lancing College. A large group of young men from the senior team at Lancing College had also made the effort to travel from the south coast in order to support the mixed event in the afternoon.

As usual, there was a wide range of standard on display, with everyone treating each other kindly whilst pairings qualified through to either the plate events or the main tournament final stages. Everyone played the same amount of Fives, with spectacular rallies taking place on most courts. The defending champions, Erica Tadman and Kerry White defeated Teressa Dunbar and Krystyna Vargas in the semi-finals, 12-5,12-8. In the other semi-final the young pair of Charlotta Cooley and Anita Ganguly just managed to fend off a superb display from Helen Toop and Kelly Johnson, to win 12-11,12-11.

Final

The Final was a fast and spectacular match. Erica and Kerry always held the key position on the top step and forced their opponents to retrieve and defend for much of the time. Eventually the younger pair were forced into making mistakes, and the match was won 12-6,12-9 by Erica and Kerry who have now won this event three and four times respectively.

The Ladies Plate was won by Karen Nunn and Tarja Mackay.