OAKLEY GO OUT TO HOLDERS

This morning Oakley took on the 2024 Champions Alton Social in the County Mixed Top Club. Despite Social not having available for selection their six Middleton Cup players, they still arrived with 7 of last year's winning team and were very quickly out of the blocks establishing good leads in four of the disciplines. The first point went to Social in the Men's Singles as David Cooper, having stormed to an early 8-2 lead ran out a 21-16 winner against Martin Vickers. The Ladies Singles promised to be a classic with the two 2024 Hampshire Walker Cup skips facing each other, but, when Social's current County Champion and five times winner, Margaret Holden surged into an 8-0 lead, it looked as if the second point was also destined to go to Social. Alice Lovett, however, had other ideas and in what turned out to be a high quality match, which was greatly enjoyed by the spectators. Alice bounced back to win 21-19 and make the overall score 1-1. That was, however, as good as it got for Oakley. The fours of Sue Dixon, Angie Rowe, Malcolm Grime and Graham Tompkins lost 20-8 and when the triples of Mary Varndell, Spencer Kerley and Ric Newson lost 22-7, the match was conceded with the pair of Janie Vickers and Sean Lassman losing 15-9 with 2 ends still to play.