After a league-winning season, the women’s first team have also managed to snatch the Cup! Thanks to their 5-1 victory in the final against Plymouth, the women have been crowned champions of the Women’s Western Conference Cup.

The final of the Cup has been much anticipated by the players, coaches and fans. In the days leading up to the big one, Head Coach, Mike Castle, worked with the girls to aim to increase their chances of a victory. He put them in different game-like scenarios and got them playing as many points as possible to get them ready for a difficult match.

The team sheet for the final featured the usual four women we have seen throughout the season, Amy Wright, Josie Culliford, Chloe Efford and Disha Gaba. The doubles pairings remained the same as Amy and Disha faced Plymouth’s first pairing, and Chloe and Josie faced their second pairing.

Chloe and Josie managed to finish their doubles match off within an hour as they won 6-2 6-1. The two girls were rightfully happy with their performance, as they believed it was one of their best this season. Amy and Disha, on the other hand, did not have it as straight-forward. They came back from a set down, to win a nail-biting thriller against Plymouth’s 1st pair, 10-7 in a third set tie break!

Thanks to these doubles wins, the girls went into the singles matches knowing they were 2-0 up on the scoreboard. The first singles match to finish was Chloe’s, as she took a comfortable win over the opposition’s 3rd player, 6-3 6-3.

Disha was up next, as she faced the 4th player. After winning the first set 6-1, she narrowly lost the second 6-3, taking it into another third-set tie break. All the fans went wild as Disha showed commitment and resilience to win the tie break 10-7. This win meant the women had officially won the Cup, having taken 4 out of the possible 6 wins.

The final two matches saw two consecutive retirements. Unfortunately, due to an ongoing injury, our second player, Josie Culliford, was forced to retire after the first set. On court 1, Amy was in a tough battle in the first set, when Plymouth’s first player could no longer continue due to injury. We wish both players a speedy recovery.

This 5-1 victory means the women have finished the season unbeaten in both league and cup! We are delighted for the girls, as they have worked extremely hard to get to this point. Congratulations Women’s 1st Team!

Next up, Varsity….