Qualifying Round - 13th November 2005
Eight teams took part in the qualification tournament for the County Championship on Sunday. It was very pleasing that the Oxford and Cambridge university clubs represented their respective counties and, in particular, that Andrew Mitchell brought a group of players down from Shrewsbury.
The large entry supported the ideal format of two groups with three pair matches played over best of three games - with many evenly matched games this led to some excellent fives and a long day. In Group A, the last match of the day saw Courtney Friend and Pete Scholey ensure that Warwickshire finished top of the table by defeating Kent’s second pair. In Group B, Middlesex making their first appearance in the County Championship for some years won all their matches 2-1 to top the table. Hertfordshire drawing upon past and present gap-year coaches at Berkhamsted just edged out Suffolk to claim the second qualification spot.
Finals - Eton 15th January 2006
Middlesex played extremely well all day to triumph in the County Championship. In the morning, Niffio Addy and Ross Bryan won the deciding match against Kent to ensure Middlesex progressed to play Warwickshire in the final. Due to an injury, Middlesex were only able to field two pairs but were able to win both matches and regain the Cup after several years of domination in this competition by Warwickshire and Kent.
Final:
Middlesex beat Warwickshire 2-1
1st Pair Tom Dunbar & Pete Dunbar beat Jonathan Mole and Alick Varma 3-0
2nd Pair Ross Bryan & Nick Shaw beat Richard Tyler & Peter Scholey 3-1
3rd Pair Conceded by Middlesex due to injury
Third-place Play-off:
Kent beat Hertfordshire 3-0
D.R.H.
County Championship Report 2005-2006 by Dan Hawkins
Updated 19th January 2006 by Mike Fenn
efa@etonfives.co.uk