Lincolnshire Men’s team travelled to Felixstowe to contest Group 4 of Mens county week.
Day One: Day one and on paper a tough match against Sussex. Fortunately for today we had star man Dan Cox available. He and Joe Woolley cruised through their first match beating the Sussex first pair comfortably. The other two pairs for the day Ed Allinson/James Lake and Will Mason/Harry Burley also won their first matches giving Lincs a 3-0 lead. Unfortunately Allinson/Lake went down in their next match despite having 2 match points, as did Mason/Burley, before Cox/Woolley gave Lincs a 4-2 lead. In the last round of matches wins for Allinson/Lake and Cox/Woolley coupled with a desperately close loss for Mason and 'sub' for the day Dave Scales gave Lincs the 6-3 win!
Day Two: A match on day two against Oxfordshire. Dan was only able to play one rubber before leaving for sunnier climbs, which resulted in a comprehensive win. A win for Mason/Scales who took over from Harry from the start, coupled with a very close loss for Allinson/Lake , and Lincs were 2-1 up after the first round. In the second round of matches despite a valiant performance Mason/Scales lost in two close sets. Allinson/Lake and Woolley/Burley (subbed in the the now departed Dan) both recorded victories to give Lincs a 4-2 lead. A clean sweep came in the last round of matches resulting in an overall 7-2 victory for Lincs!
Day Three: 2 wins out of 2, on day three we played the other undefeated team North of Scotland. It looked tough from the outset with Lake injured and sitting the day out. James White came in for the day and played with Ed, losing 3 tight matches, one against a pair who took 15 out of 15 for the week! Also losing 3 was the pair of Harry/Joe. Two rubbers however were put on the scoreboard from the inspired pair of Dave/Will, who played fantastic tennis all day! Overall a 7-2 loss for Lincs but still right in the hunt for promotion!
Day Four: A much more manageable match against West of Scotland on day 4. Much to his credit, despite his injury, Lake came back in for the day, his final day, and together with Allinson won all three rubbers including a win against their first pair, one of whom had won 10 out of 10 up until then. Two wins a piece for Harry/Joe and 1 for Will/Dave, and then a debut win for 'sub' Ed Colclough and Scales, gave Lincs the crucial 7-2 victory.
Day Five: Day five turned out to be a promotion shoot-out against North Wales. The weather however did not look good! Forecast torrential rain made the referee make the decision to make all matches short sets, sudden death deuce and a champs tie break third set! With Lake and White both having left, Ed Colclough came in for the day. Allinson teaming up with Mason put Lincs' only rubber of the first round on the board. Unfortunately only one rubber followed in the following round, from Scales/Woolley, meaning Lincs needed all 3 final round rubbers for an unlikely win. After a set of the final round the rain came and Wales' first pair refused to carry on. Much to their credit the other two Wales pairs did carry on and amazingly the pairs of Colclough/Burley and Scales/Woolley both won incredibly tight matches, meaning it was 4-4 with Allinson/Mason a set up when their match was called off for rain. An hour later the decision was made that they would have to finish their match on the adjacent Astro turf courts, in driving rain! Tension abound Allinson/Mason won the second set in the tie-break giving Lincs an incredible promotion!
Another incredible achievment and yet another promotion for the Lincs Mens Team, meaning we will be contesting what looks a crazily strong Group 3 next year! Hopefully with Dan around and all the young lads improving we will be more then competitive. As captain I can’t praise the 9 guys who played throughout the week enough, an absolutely brilliant effort from everyone!
Ed Allinson