Joan Smith was selected to play in the home internationals at Cardiff at the weekend. After an epic 2 day journey she reached the venue just in time to be told she was next on court.  The Scottish team were already 4-0 up against Ireland when she arrived. Despite the lack of preparation she convincingly beat Ireland’s Dee Hourihane 9-2, 9-0, 9-0.

England were the toughest opponents and the captains tactics were to try to win as many points as possible as the other countries had won very few. Joan was up against Sam Mueller who played a low, hard driving game, a complete contrast to her game of lobs and drops. Sam won the first set 9-5, then Joan won the second set 10- 8. After a tiring 30 minutes of ralleys, Sam won 9-4 and 9-6. Scotland’s number one Fiona McLean also took a game off England but eventually also lost 3-1. The other Scottish ladies all lost 3-0.

In the last match against Wales, Scotland were 2-1 down before Joan had to face Kath Horler-Clee. Joan managed to secure a win with a 9-3, 9-4 and 9-6 score line. This left Scottish Captain Sue Strachan the difficult task of playing the decider. Which ever country won the last game would come runners up to England. Unfortunately Sue lost to Lynne Davies of Wales and Scotland came 3^rd overall with 29 points to Wales 31 points in second place.