The 2nd 050 UK County Padel Championship saw the continued development of Somerset Padel.

With the strengthening of the Men’s team this helped the county win two mixed matches and our 2nd ever men’s match.

But before the padel started a last minute ruling by the LTA meant one of our strong women players was unable to play so an 11th hour call up saw Kate Walters step in to play. 

First off was the mixed V Sussex with Stuart Farrar & Ines Beeson on the televised show court playing to the crowds with a 4-1 first set followed by a 4-2 set to Sussex and a 10-8 tie break win for Somerset. Unfortunately we learned afterwards that the cameras were off.

A sussex win over Arthur Turner & Sally Miller saw a shoot out with Arthur & Ines winning 10-8. A promising start to the day.

We were straight on again with Stuart & Kate up against Cornwall and with Kate subbing at the 11th hour with no current form we went down 4-2,4-2 but hot footing over from the shoot out Arthur & Ines won 2-0 to force another shoot out with Stuart & Ines coming home again…10-8!

The next mixed saw Gabriel Carrillo make his county debut with Sally v Wiltshire but with Arthur & Ines winning their match we saw another shoot out! 

This time the dice fell in Wiltshire’s favour whose reaction in winning was a little exuberant.

The final mixed saw us lose to top seeds and eventual champions the Channel  Islands so we were just 2 shoot out points from finishing runner up in the group.

The first women’s match V Avon without our full team was going to be a tall order with Ines & Sian Lewis- Williams and Sandy Osborne & Kate both narrowly missing out in close two set defeats.

The first men’s match saw Stuart & Arthur up against past champions Yorkshires Uk no1 050 John Dunseath and his partner so a creditable score of 2-6,4-6 involved some high quality Padel. Gabriel & Chris Hood, playing his first game didn’t quite make up for the 21 years they were giving away going down 0-2.

The first match of Sunday saw our women play Buckinghamshire with Ines & Sandy competing bravely at 1 set a piece but losing out in the tiebreak 10-8… again. Then Sian partnered an injured Sally which at 1 set all saw a tie break to 10 only this time we won 11-9 setting up another shoot out only this time Ines & Sian went down fighting 6-10 but at least injured Sally & Sian were chuffed with their match win.

The final women’s match V top seeds East Scotland was a match too far with Ines & Sandy and Sian & Kate competing well but they were just too good on the day.

The second men’s match saw Shaun Carroll making his county debut partnering Chris Hood winning convincingly in 2 sets V Berkshire whilst Arthur & Stuart laboured to a 6-4, 6-4 victory but gave us our 2nd ever County Men’s win.

The final men’s match saw us play the county of South Wales,  a county with 6 times Somerset’s population and seven times the number of courts! Shaun and Gabriel teamed up to compete well in the first set but dropped off in the second. Stuart and Arthur teamed up against Welsh International James Tranter & partner to compete well to 3 all but a break of serve let the set go 3-6. An injury at 3-5 down saw Arthur applying his medical skills to his welsh friends calf allowing the Welsh player to try and serve out the match but some tactical shot placement saw Somerset break back. A retirement by South Wales saw another shoot out with Arthur & Shaun coming so close but just losing out 8-10. You guessed it.

Still a great effort and short of some more shoot out practice the Men were two points from finishing second in the group and the Women two  points from winning our first 050’s women’s match. 

So it’s been another breakthrough county weekend for Somerset with dare i say it the next ambition being qualification to the Knockout stages. I am  immensely proud that with very limited access to local Padel venues for most of us  we compete together so well when it matters. A big thankyou to all those who committed to the trials and the weekend. 

Vamos Somerset.

Stu Farrar, Captain