 The 2009 West Surrey Ladies Singles took place on the 19th March at Riley's Guildford.
With a starting field of 8 runners this was certainly another step in the right direction for Ladies Pool within West Surrey as across Surrey entries from the fairer sex are all in all low. Organizing the event fell to secretary Edd Marshall as his better half was in the tournament.
We know there are other Ladies out there who may want to get involved and perhaps start an all female team within the League, who knows.
With the absence of a number of high profile ladies last time round, this year included seven of the eight entries from last year.
Once again this was an opportunity for a new face to come to the for and perhaps another new name on the trophy for 2009 and Steph Powell has done just that by defeating the defending champion Sarah Leeden in five frames in this years final.
Since the inaugural competition won by Colette Bromhead in 1995 there have been a total of nine different Champions, Anne Taylor leads the way with five wins from her seven consecutive finals (1995-2001) Amanda McWilliams twice (2005-2006) Vicki Abott (2000) Gemma Adcock (2004) and Sarah Leeden (2008) all winning one of their two final appearances. Colette, Mel Applely, Sarah Parsons and now Steph Powell complete the list of Champions.
Draw and Results
Catherine Akehurst 1 v 2 Steph Powell
Claire Hawkins 0 v 2 Sarah Colton
Karolyne Foster 1 v 2 Sylvia Reynolds
Sarah Leeden 2 v 0 Donna Gregory
Steph eased past Cath Akehurst in a match that could have gone either way. Sarah Colton looked impressive beating Claire Hawkins 2-0 and new girl Sylvia Reynolds upset the form book by taking the deciding frame against Karolyne Foster and finally Sarah Leeden the defending champion cruised past Donna Gregory.
Semi Finals
Sarah Colton 0 v 2 Steph Powell
Sylvia Reynolds 0 v 2 Sarah Leeden
It wasn’t to be a repeat of last year's final as Sarah Colton missed several chances against Steph Powell eventually losing 2-0 in the second Semi Final Sarah Leeden was too strong for Sylvia running out by the same score.
The Final
Steph Powell 3-2 Sarah Leeden
Sarah Leeden got of to the perfect start taking the initial frame with relative ease and looked to be on course to retain her title she won 12 months ago by increasing her lead to 2-0. However from then on it was all about mistakes from Sarah and resolute play from Steph who clawed her way back into the final winning the next two frames to force a decider. The final frame followed the same pattern as the previous 4 frames where Sarah Leeden put herself in a winning position only to falter on the final few balls. This gave a Steph another chance and slowly but surely took control of the frame and eventually the match. Sarah will rue this as a chance missed to secure a second win in the event but for the new ladies champion Steph Powell a fitting end to a great night for her. Steph probably wasn’t the favourite at the start of play but by taking out both of last years finalists and Cath Akehurst in the first round she fully deserved her win in the end.
Thanks to all the players who attended.
Congratulations to Steph Powell on winning the event.
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