A family-friendly sport!
BUT TOUGH START FOR THE SENIOR COUNTY TEAM IN PREMIER DIVISION
WHEN the Leicestershire Senior County team won promotion to the Premier Division of the County Championship at the end of the 2019/20 season, they did not expect to have to miss a year before embarking on this tough assignment, writes John Bowness.
They did, along with everyone else, and the first three matches showed just how tough it will be with the first two being 8-2 defeats in Milton Keynes and the third match shared.
Represented by Jared Patel, Karen Smith, Daria Dzierbicka and the father/son combination of Chris and Jack Rogers, their first match against Middlesex saw that father/ son combination capture the two winning sets, one each, while other chances could not be converted, including Smith going down in five for one of the losses.
Next came reigning champions Sussex and this time Chris Rogers beat former Leicester League’s Mark Scutts (Unicorn) while Dzierbicka defeated Theresa Bennett but, again, just those two successes.
Their third match against Surrey found the local team 4-0 down before a wonderful comeback. Smith won easily to start it off and then Jack Rogers, Dzierbicka, Patel and Smith for the second time found success for the team to go 5-4 up.
Try as he may, team captain Chris Rogers could not find a way around his final opponent and the final score was 5-5.
The good news is that the County has mainly lower rated opponents to come in February, although the opposition is still formidable.
Two notable family teams also came to fruition.
As well as Chris and Jack Rogers playing in this County team, Chris’ sister Karen Smith also plays and there cannot be many teams with three members of the same immediate family playing together at such a high level. In the Leicester and District League, it was the Seeds family, above, who had three generations playing in the same team last week when grandad Dave, his son Neil and grandson Thomas all played in Division Five for Winstanley Wizards 6 against Syston Casuals 4.
Dave won three, Neil and Thomas one each, while Wes Glauds and John Henshaw both took two for Syston and the doubles.
While on Division Five it is worth recording how well the initial “Get Back To Playing” event has been received.
It is the only division with a full 12 teams and every match has been played all six weeks so far with a full compliment of three players in each team.
Contrast that with Division One where a number of teams have played with two players while still more matches have been put to one side through a lack of availability.
One of the problems mentioned in the highest division is that many of the players have other competitive matches and tournaments ranging from County to National League, as well as other leagues in this county being up and running competitively, while players who come from counties bordering Leicestershire also have their own leagues functioning.
Hopefully, when the Leicester League gets going in the new year with full gradings and trophies at stake, this will change as our top division is renowned for its strength in depth, which is why so many from outside the county play in our league in normal circumstances.