Daniel Baker has a look at some of the local sports from around the region.
In football, Cambridge United had a busy weekend with friendlies on Friday, July 21 and Saturday, July 22.
Their first match was Josh Coulson’s eagerly-awaited testimonial which saw the U’s take on Tottenham Hotspur’s under-23 side.
Tottenham led 2-0 at the break and after the interval, Luke Berry halved the arrears before Shayon Harrison wrapped up his hat-trick for Spurs.
Uche Ikpeazu pulled one back for the U’s, but it proved to be nothing more than a consolation goal with the final score 3-2 to Tottenham.
But the night was more about Josh Coulson who is celebrating 10 years in the first team set-up.
After the game, Coulson said: “I’m one of the fans and I see myself as one of them.
“Every time I play and put the shirt on, I feel like I’m representing them. It means a lot and it was nice of everyone to turn out for me.”
Less than 24 hours later, the U’s found themselves playing their second match in as many days away at National League South side Dartford.
Warren Mfula put the non-league side in front, but the U’s were rescued by Adam McGurk who came up with a second half leveller.
The Darts had their Gibraltar international goalkeeper Derren Ibrahim to thank for making two crucial saves at the death as he kept out George Maris and David Amoo.
U’s manager Shaun Derry said: “It was a good test. They (Dartford) have got high aspirations to do well again in the Conference South.
“I was speaking to Dartford’s manager Tony Burman before the game and we knew it was going to be a tough test today.
“We’ve had a number of games in pre-season and then obviously on the back of last night (Friday’s testimonial) it was important that we carried out the day’s events in the right way and I thought we did that.”
In other friendly news, Histon beat Stotfold 2-1 thanks to goals from Joe Sutton and Ollie Habergham on Saturday while Cambridge City lost 4-3 to Newmarket Town on Friday.
On Sunday, Cambridge United Women thrashed Norwich 5-0 with three of their goals coming from trialists.
And former Cambridge manager Claude Le Roy has guided his Togo side into the next phase of African Nations Championship qualifying after they beat Benin on penalties.
In cricket, the weather depleted the weekend’s schedule with only a handful of games going ahead in full across the regional divisions.
Only two games across the Whiting & Partners Divisions were completed with Wisbech beating Nassington in Division 1 and Great Shelford seeing off Warboys in Division 2.
In the CCA Senior League Divisions, only two games survived the weather and the winners were the Old Leysians and Histon in Division 2.
Cambridge Granta’s game with Mildenhall was also affected by the weather and ended up being a general draw.
In rowing, Cambridge University student Ian Middleton is celebrating after winning a bronze medal with Team GB in the men’s eight event in the Under-23 Championships in Bulgaria.
Fellow students Freddie Davidson, Thea Zabell, Imogen Grant and Oonagh Cousins were also in race action in various finals, but none of them came away with any medals.
The Town Bumps competition ended on Friday, July 21 and Cantabs made many of the headlines. They finished head of the river in the men’s and women’s categories.
Two of their men’s teams earned blades and five of their women’s teams also earned their blades. The other men’s sides to get blades were Chesterton 2, ’99 6 and City 12 while the other women’s sides to get blades were Rob Roy 2, Isle of Ely and ’99 5. The John Jenner Trophy was won by Isle of Ely.
In tennis, the The Aegon Summer County Cup is due to get underway on Monday, July 24.
Cambridgeshire’s men will play Derbyshire, Yorkshire, South Wales, Hampshire & Isle of Wight and Cheshire in their group.
Meanwhile, Cambridgeshire’s women have been drawn against Berkshire, East of Scotland, Northumberland, Lincolnshire and Sussex for the group stage.
In horse racing, there were seven races at Newmarket on Saturday. Capla Temptress, God Given, Curious Fox, Ballard Down, Dark Magic, Love Dreams and Contango were the day’s winners.
And in judo, Foxton’s Imogen Ranner missed out a medal at the Commonwealth Youth Games in the Bahamas after losing out in all three of her contests.
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Published by Daniel Baker
