Woad unbeaten as Surrey women claim county title
FARNHAM’S Lottie Woad won all five of her singles matches as Surrey claimed the title of English Women’s County champions by beating closest challengers Somerset.
A hard-fought 3.5-1.5 win against the only county which could have pipped them to the crown allowed Surrey to come out on top in the six-team round robin event also featuring Buckinghamshire, Hertfordshire, Lincolnshire and Yorkshire.
On the Friday morning, Surrey opened the finals by beating Hertfordshire 3-5-1.5. They then took down Yorkshire by 3-2 and followed that up with Saturday wins against Buckinghamshire (3.5-1.5) and Lincolnshire (4-1).
Going into the Sunday morning’s final encounter against Somerset, the odds were heavily stacked in Surrey’s favour.
Somerset – with three wins from their four matches – knew that they had to win and restrict Surrey to just half a point from the two foursomes and three singles games in order to win their first ever county title.
Surrey, though, ultimately proved too strong for their nearest rivals.
Olivia Horsford teamed up with Hyun-Ji Kim to deliver the foursomes point which secured the inevitable victory.
A half point delivered by Taylor and Ellie Monk – who ended the week unbeaten with four-and-a-half points from five – was then followed by final hole singles wins for Ellen Yates and Woad.
It was a particularly successful week for Woad who won all of her singles matches – including a final day encounter with England girls’ squad colleague Patience Rhodes that was laced with real quality from start to finish.