Henley 2 travelled to Oxford to take on the University 3’s to determine the Division Four Winter Season Champions for 2025/26 and it proved a rather fruitful journey.
Things did not get off to the ideal start for the visitors however as 3rd String Tim Budden went down 3-0 to the home team Skipper David Quinn in a much closer encounter than the scoreline perhaps suggests.
Next up, playing at 4, David Edwards started brightly enough to suggest it could be the University’s night but his one set lead was soon erased by his opposite number James Rowson who then played very steadily to take the leg 3-1. The Uni anchor, Laurence Robb, also started strongly but was soon reeled in by Tom Tuite Dalton and a 3-0 win for the latter put Henley 2-1 up overall.
Miles Nunn at 2 for the home team, had never played John Williams the Henley skipper before and rather hopes he doesn’t repeat the experience in the near future. Reading his shots is particularly difficult and the bamboozled Nunn succumbed 3-0 and with this defeat, the trophy wended it’s way south.
A pity that matters had been settled and that the final tie was something of a dead rubber. However, it was easily the best spectacle of the evening with Riaz Dharamshi overcoming Dan Andrews to give his Uni team a bit more respectability on the scorecard.
So, 3-2 to Henley 2 and many congratulations to them.
Henley 2
L-R: James Rowson, Tim Budden, John Williams (Skipper), Dan Andrews, Tom Tuite Dalton