Day One: Day one and a tough match against a notoriously strong Lancashire team. Arriving at Ilkley on Sunday with only 7 players we knew it would be a tough week, having narrowly stayed up in Group 3 last year when having star man Dan Cox available. Unfortunately Dan couldn't make it this year, leaving us with the 7 players from start to finish. The pairs of Will Mason/Ed Allinson, Joe Woolley/Dom Beesley and Henry Beesley/Dave Scales kicked things off. Henry & Dave played outstanding tennis to win their first match as did Ed & Will, winning in a three set thriller! Dom & Joe didn't produce their best losing comfortably! That was as good as it got for the team with only Henry & Dave adding another rubber, resulting in a 6-3 overall loss.
Day Two: Somerset were up on day two and on paper it looked a winnable day. Harry Burley came in for Joe, partnering Dom, but couldn't quite get the win against one of the strongest pairs of the week. Wins however, for Will/Ed and Henry/Dave put us 2-1 up! Somersets strongest pair again dealt with Henry/Dave routinely, but another brace of wins from the other two pairs left us 4-2 up with a round to go. In the final round Ed/Will lost one of the matches of the week to their top pair 7-5 in the final set, but again two wins from the other pair resulted in a 6-3 overall success.
Day Three: Days three and four we knew would decide the fate of the team this week. Day three and a tie with East of Scotland. Their top pair won 15 out of 15 last year and were on for a similar tally this week so we knew it would be tough! Ed sat the day out with a hip injury so the pairs were shuffled around with Will/Dom, Joe/Harry and Dave/Henry taking to the court. As predicted, Scotland's top pair dealt with all three pairs with seriously impressive displays. However two wins for Joe/Harry, two fantastic under pressure wins for Will/Dom and one win from Henry/Dave gave Lincs the massive 5-4 win!
Day Four: Day Four and a tie with our old adversaries, North Wales. We have now played them 4 times in the last few years and its always a tough battle! Ed came back in for this one with Dave sitting out the first two rounds of matches. A win for Ed/Will was the only rubber to come from the first round of matches, with close losses for the pairs of Joe/Harry and Dom/Henry. The most tense of second and third rounds followed! All three rubbers went to, due to rain delays, a third set tie-break. Joe/Harry unfortunately lost theirs 10-6, but thankfully Ed/Will won theirs 10-7 and Dom/Henry theirs 10-8!! This meant it was 3-3 going into the final round. Dave subbed in for Harry in the last round and a nerve wracking round began. Dom/Henry took care of their opponents with ease but unfortunately Dave/Joe lost in three close sets. So it came down to Ed/Will who were locked at a set apiece. The tie Break couldn't have started better, with the Lincs pair going 6-0 up! As always though Wales fought back to 7-5 at one point before the Lincs pair served out the tie-break 10-7 and with it a 5-4 victory!
Day Five: The two hard fought 5-4 wins on the previous two days guaranteed survival, but a win against an already promoted Norfolk would mean the most improbable promotion! With Norfolk already promoted they made a few changes to their side, but it was still a strong Norfolk team. First round and wins for Ed/Will and Dom/Joe coupled with a loss for Henry/Dave meant we were 2-1 up. Henry, after an inspired week sat the next round out with Harry coming in. Comfortable wins for Ed/Will and Dom/Joe meant Lincs needed one more rubber! At that time Dave/Harry were down a set and 4-3. Fighting valiantly they won the second set before winning the deciding tie-break 10-7 and starting some big celebrations! The 5-1 unassailable win meant Lincs had achieved and incredible promotion to Group 2!
Without Dan for the week the lads would have been overjoyed just to stay in group 3, but to achieve this promotion is a phenomenal feat! All 7 lads could barely walk out the club on Friday evening, having given everything they had all week and all producing some of their very best tennis. The team spirit was the best i've been involved in and I can’t speak highly enough about each of them! This puts us in Group 2 next year with the likes of Surrey, Yorkshire and Kent, whose resources and pool of players is just on another planet to ours, and is by far the highest level the county have played in Summer County Cup for a number of years. Along with being in Group 2 of the Winter version this is an unprecedented level of success for the Men’s team, and long may it continue!
Ed Allinson, Mens County Captain.