2013 Ladies Championships: Top two cruise though

The 2013 Ladies Championships took place at Eton yesterday with the tournament getting as far as the semi-final stage. One or two high profile absentees due to various illnesses, injuries and clashes with holidays meant that the top two seeds went though the day pretty much unchallenged and Dominique Redmond & Marianne Catmull will face Charlotta Cooley & Karen Hird in the final at Eton on Sunday April 7th. There were some encouraging signs elsewhere in the tournament as some new faces took the opportunity to demonstrate their improvement and make it through to the latter stages of the competition.

The growth in the Ladies game was not quite reflected in the size of this year's entry; a clash with Highgate's half term meant that none of their Black Cup winning squad was able to play and the absence for various reasons of Lia Redmond, Emily Scoones, Izzy Watts and one or two others plus a disappointing number of late withdrawals meant that 19 pairs made it to Eton for the day's play.

It was clear from the start that the top two seeds were head and shoulders above the rest of the field and they duly progressed untested through the day's play. Elsewhere there were some terrific matches going on; Oxford University Ladies were runners-up in the team of the year category at last year's EFA awards and they demonstrated that they are continuing to improve as three of their pairs made it though the group stages and into the Last 8, with the highlight a win for their third pair of Scarlett Maguire and Julia Toynton over the higher ranked Cambridge first pair of Elana Osen and Olivia Prankerd-Smith. The future for the Dark Blues also looks bright with the arrival next year of Shrewsbury pair Rosie Parr and Hannah Pritchard, who performed above expectations to top their group after a win over Ashley Lumbard and Emmalina Cohen and then followed that with an impressive quarter-final win - having lost the first game 12-10 - over Katharina Kuenburg and Natalie Lilienthal. There was encouragement there too for the Cambridge squad, with some beginners pairs showing a lot of promise.

With the Harriets Allan and Asquith going down to Cooley and Hird and Maguire and Toynton no match for Redmond and Catmull, it was left to Constance Mantle and Alice Walker to fly the Oxford flag into the semi-finals with a convincing quarter-final win over Lumbard and Cohen. At this stage of the competition the top two pairs really demonstrated their superiority as Catmull and Redmond beat Parr and Pritchard without losing a point, and Cooley and Hird cruised past Mantle and Walker for the loss of just two. The difference between the top two pairs and the rest was clear to see, not just in their superior cutting, returning and shot making, but most significantly in their consistency and lack of errors. Both semi-finals featured lots of good shots and plenty of good rallies but inevitably it was the more inexperienced pairs making the fatal mistake each time. The final promises to be a cracker!

Elsewhere, the plate competitions were being fiercely contested. Plate A for the third placed teams in the morning groups was especially exciting with Cambridge pairs Marta Karbowska and Anneliese O'Malley and Elana Osen and Olivia Prankerd-Smith going head to head with each other and also the Lucys - Rands and Bell - and the intriguing last minute partnership of the experienced Fiona Barnes and promising Wycombe youngster Francesca Turnbull. In the end it came down to the clash between Elana and Olivia and Fiona and Francesca and it was the scratch pairing of Barnes and Turnbull who edged the match 15-13.

Plpate B for the fourth placed pairs also produced some close encounters and was eventually won by Shrewsbury pair Holly Free and Cressida Adams, who won the decider over Cambridge pair Katherine Morris and Sara Chowienczyk. Plate C was an all Shrewsbury affair and was won by Isabelle Turney and Charlotte Perkins.

Thanks are due to Eton for hosting the tournament, to Mandie Barnes for her organisational help, Wendy Carling for generously stepping aside, providing welcome burgers and then stepping in to fill in in the plate, and to all those who organised teams and made it such an enjoyable day.

Quarter Finals:

D.Redmond & M.Catmull beat S.Maguire & J.Toynton 2-0 (12-2, 12-0)

R.Parr & H.Pritchard beat K.Kuenburg & N.Lilienthal 2-1 (10-12, 12-10, 12-5)

C.Mantle & A.Walker beat A.Lumbard & E.Cohen 2-0 (12-2, 12-4)

C.Cooley & K.Hird beat H.Asquith & H.Allan 2-0 (12-2, 12-0)

Semi-Finals:

D.Redmond & M.Catmull beat R.Parr & H.Pritchard 2-0 (12-0, 12-0)

C.Cooley & K.Hird beat C.Mantle & A.Walker 2-0 (12-2, 12-0)

Plate A: F.Barnes & F.Turnbull

Plate B: H.Free & C.Adams

Plate C: I.Turney & C.Perkins