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Round 2 of the RBA Knock-Out Cup (aka Griffiths Cup) against British Rail B at Home and it couldn't be any more of a contrast to our first round match against John Lewis! Once again, we had what seemed to be a harsh handicap, only this time, coupled with our 'home advantage' of a -2 starting score, it was very harsh! We had to score at least 14 points (starting at -2 down) in every game, in order to win the match - that's not much of a handicap, especially against a strong side from British Rail! And it was clear after the first couple of rubbers, that that wasn't going to happen! To be fair to our ladies, we are considered, by many, to have a reasonably strong ladies team, but to go out with a duck in the first ladies round just goes to emphasise the Amazon-like prowess of the British Rail ladies! Where British Rail undoubtedly scored was in established match pairings and simple, consistent play. The two Andrews did in fact win their first game of their first rubber to 10, but consistently solid play from British Rail and slightly less than consistent, rather flagging play from Andy allowed British Rail to more than even the score to 5! Marcus and Camerons defeat to 6 and 8 was about as close as we could get in the remaining rubbers, apart from Andy & Janes last ditch attempt in the final rubber, winning the first game to 5, but letting slip and losing in the second to 10. Not bad considering they've never played as a match pair before! Inter team post match jovial bantar in the bar afterwards helped to ease a defeat that, which with the handicap as given, was possibly an easy prediction long before the game had actually begun. Final score 147-225 points, after adjusting for the handicap. |