The Monkstone men were not able to emulate the ladies by bringing the National Doubles title back to the club in today’s contest at Pontyclun PC. Monkstone had two and a half teams with Roger Green & Sean Smith and Bernard Adshead & Roger Griffin making two pairings and Gareth Spencer teaming up with Stuart Spencer.
The format was 2 groups of 5 but instead of there being any byes, the 2 teams who would have had byes played each other. The top 2 from each group went through to the semi-finals. Sean & Roger and the Spencers were in one group which included the favourites, Ian Bailey & Jean-Yves Robic. Bernard and Roger were in the other group which include Kon Tomczyk & Richard Harris and Derek Jones & John Attfield.
Roger & Bernard started with their bye and, having avoided them in the draw, who should they come up against but Ian & J-Y. The Monkstone pair built up an early lead which they never relinquished to run out 13-7 winners. Could this be the start of something big? They went on to win 2 out of the first 3 games within their group leaving them, before the final round, as one of 3 teams on 3 wins but with Kon & Richard, also on 3 wins, left to play in the last round. The winners would definitely be in the semis. Kon and Richard took an early lead but Roger & Bernard managed to claw their way back to 7-7 but couldn’t keep it going and lost 13-7 which eliminated them from the competition as the other team on 3 wins also won.
In the other group, Sean & Roger put up a good show but were eliminated on 2 wins. Gareth & Stuart chalked up 3 wins which was enough in their group to see them through to the semi finals in which they went down 8-13 against Kon & Richard who themselves went on to lose in the final to Ian & J-Y.
So it was not to be for Monkstone but Roger & Bernard can take something from the fact that they were the only pair all day to beat the eventual winners.
