Sunday March 8th 2026 saw 12 ladies pairs teams from the Suffolk Coastal Region gather at the Eels Foot for the annual International Women's Day pairs. Although the forecast was initially forecast sunny weather, we got that bone numbing damp cold that the east coast does so well.

The morning was taken up with everyone playing 3 matches in pools of 4. In Pool A the new pairing of Martha Rios-Hall & Andrea Rios-Hall managed to get the clean sweep with 3 wins, whilst last years Ladies League champions, Deborah Bell & Bev Wheeler recovered from losing the first match against them to finish second with 2 wins. In a tough group, Steph Adamson & Amy Brewer, previous IWD winners, struggled to find form, managing just 1 win out of their 3 games, whilst new comers to the IWD, Barbara Bentley & Hilary Ward played well without magian to register a win.

Pool B saw a confident performance from the Middleton Bell team of Jenny & Barbara who finished top of the group on 3 wins. Jan & Sian came second with 2 wins, with a close 8-6 win over Niki & Janet leaving the latter on 1 win over Eira & Gill who finished the group with no wins.

Making the trip up the A12, Airavata Carroll & Sesa Ishaya from the Wheatsheaf Tattingstone made quick work of their group games dropping only 9 points, 8 of these in their first game against Wendy Cooper & Julie Glenn who ended up second on 1 win and 1 draw. Third in this group was Iris Sutton & Joy Lightfoot on 1 win whilst the scratch team of Denise & Julie Collett came fourth with 1 draw.

In the Gold competition, 1st seeds Airavata Carroll & Sesa struggled to get restarted after lunch against 4th seeds Jan Lovell & Sian Hart losing 13-2. The other semi final 2nd Seeds Jenny & Barbara won a close game against 3rd seeds Martha Rios-Hall & Andrea.

The final between Jan & Sian and Jenny & Barbara was a close affair, with neither team being able to pull ahead, it was Jan & Sian who managed to keep just ahead to win 13-10

WIth 12 teams attending, we needed a third and fourth place playoff to find our third pair, and it was Airavata & Sesa who recovered from losing the semi-final to claim the third place spot against Martha & Andrea.