This year Notts found themselves up against Lincs, Norfolk, Suffolk, Oxon and Sussex in Div 2a.
Our first match against Lincolnshire was played at Boston with their fabulous grey clay courts – unfortunately on one of the hottest days of the year we had to play indoors!
The team of Tony Alexander, Pete Whitehead, Steve Wallace and Rob Cree came away with a hot, close 3-2 victory. The doubles proved pivotal to the win with Steve and Rob walking off with a great third set tie-break.
Our next match was a home fixture against Norfolk on the indoor courts at West Bridgford. The team of Tony Alexander, Andy Scott a left handed (witchcraft if you ask me!) new addition to the team, Pete Godber and Tim Phillips. It was a very close match but wasn’t to be for Notts – eventually going down a very close 3-2, again the doubles looked to determine the outcome and this time it went against us on the day.
The third match of the series was again played at home against Oxfordshire – a new county to us and I can’t recall playing them before in seniors tennis!
The team of Pete Whitehead, Andy Scott (the sorcerer), Pete Godber and Ged Doherty pulled off a great 3-2 win – again all the three doubles matches went our way, so a great team come-back.
Unfortunately Notts struggled to field a team for the last two remaining away matches – Folkstone and Crawley proving a journey too far on a late Sunday afternoon, I know a lot of the team captains are also struggling to field teams at some of the venues further away. I think it’s probably time to explore the same successful format as the 35’s – with all teams together at one venue played over a along weekend. Failing that, a neutral venue – fair to both teams in terms of travel time. Rant over – here’s to a successful ‘17 season.
Many thanks to the team of Tony Alexander, Pete Whitehead, Pete Godber, Andy Scott, Ged Doherty, Rob Cree, Steve Wallace, Richard Joyner (who unfortunately injured himself the night before our first game!) and myself Tim Phillips (capt).
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