Wirral A and Wirral Juniors played in the ‘Des Jeffers’ tournament at Woodchurch on Sunday October 31st.

Wirral A: Nina Hofmann, Gina Nuttall, Lauren Parker, Lois Watson, Eloise Duncalf, Bethany Connor, Katie Leppington

Wirral Juniors: Ella Groverall, Kate Thomas, Ellie Stocker, Lucy Pitman, Verity Wilcox, Lily Bloomfield, Eisha Chahal

Our U16 girls played their first competitive matches at Sunday’s tournament. Not surprisingly they completely froze in the first match and lost heavily but they improved progressively as the tournament went on, ending with a narrow win in their final match against Edge Hill College. A pretty good first day out.

Wirral A - our U18s - had a chence of reaching the final and started with a thumping win against Hoylake Hurricanes, then had the better of a one set-all match against Liverpool B. A predicatable loss against a very strong Everton side got us into the cross-over semi-finals with the propect of having another go at Everton in the final. Unfortunately the girls couldn’t hold their game together in the semi-final against Liverpool A whose cover and control made it very difficult to win points. Not a bad effort for their first match in nearly two years and a good basis to build on for the National U18 competition coming up in January.

Liverpool A really gave it a go in the final but despite strong serving and lots of hard work in defence were no match for Everton, by some distance the best team in the competition. 

Our club turned out in force to do a really good job in hosting the competition. Beth, who couln’t play because of a bad back kept time and kept the scores in order, then helped out with refereeing at the end. Adam and Tom provided a lot of help with getting the courts ready and coaching our teams. Andy Fuller from Chester came along to help out, ran one court, and refereed in the semi-finals and final - all helping to ensure the competitions ran smoothly and kept to time. All in all a pretty good day.