Congratulations to Cambridgeshire's Over 35's Men's team who secured promotion to Division 1 of the AEGON County Cup for the first time in their history over the first weekend in August at Eastbourne.
The team of David Mills (Captain), Pieter van Houten and Scott Martin were joined by Alan Jordan and Alan Leeder who were late replacements after the withdrawal of Richard Ground and Adrian Blackman due to illness.
Mills opened up proceedings on Day 1 with a fine 6-2, 6-0 win over Devon's Dan Jones. Van Houten then lost out narrowly to Dan Ahl (the former Hills Road and Kings School head professional) in a 3rd set tie-break. With the tie finely balanced, Martin and Jordan won a thrilling 3rd set tie-break to take a slim lead, only for Mills and van Houten to take the tie with a straight sets win in the ensuing doubles.
Day 2 was mired with rain and the match with Oxford declared a draw. This meant that the winner of the match on Day 3 between Cambridgeshire and Derbyshire would decide promotion to the top division.
Mills again kicked off proceedings and won 6-1, 6-3 against the Derbyshire Captain, Edward Oakenful. With high expectations of van Houten winning his singles match, disaster struck mid way through the first set and a break up, when he pulled a hamstring. Despite intervention from the trainer van Houten was forced to retire from both the singles and doubles. With the match now hanging in the balance, Martin and Jordan took to the court again and won the next doubles in two sets. This meant one win from the remaining two matches would secure victory. Leeder, having not played a match up until that point, stepped into the next doubles with Mills. Having lost the first set and having faced a number of break points in the second set, matters looked all but certain to go to the final match. But at 5-4 on serve in the second set, Mills and Leeder found their touch, breaking to take the set and then storming through the third set tie-break to clinch victory and promotion in front of both ecstatic and relieved supporters.
Mills had nothing but praise for his players. He said "this was a true team effort. Despite some late changes to the squad, the team spirit was high and everyone performed at an extremely high level throughout the weekend to secure a historic promotion to Division 1. We are very much looking forward to next year and competing with the top three counties in the UK."