Division 1B
Saturday 06/06/2015 13:00 Away to Essex
An unsuccessful trip to Barkingside to play a very strong team from Essex. Unfortunately John Taylor was still recovering from a calf injury so John Kingston enthusiastically stepped down from his age group to play doubles and support the team.
Team: Eddie Fox (Singles) Nick Shelvey (Singles) David Carter & John Kingston (Doubles)
Result: 0-5
Friday 26/06/2015 12:00 Home to Cheshire
Our home match this time but Cheshire proved as strong as Essex and our promotion to division 1B was proving “hard work”! John Taylor returned for this match and came very close to winning his singles, losing on the third set tie-break despite very little opportunity to practice.
Team: Eddie Fox (Singles) John Taylor (Singles) David Carter & Nick Shelvey (Doubles)
Result: 0-5
Monday 29/06/2015 13:00 Away to Buckinghamshire
On this occasion a rather more successful trip to Chesham Bois where we took on a slightly less powerful team (which included Nick Shelvey’s old doubles partner and of course Eddie Fox’s friends from his glory days!!)
Team: Eddie Fox (Singles) John Taylor (Singles) David Carter & Nick Shelvey (Doubles)
Result: 4-1
Friday 24/07/2015 12:00 Home to Middlesex
The outcome of our match against Middlesex was beyond our expectations and a 3-2 result gave us some hope of staying in the top division. A strong performance from John Taylor to win his singles match on the third set tie-break swung the tie.
Team: Eddie Fox (Singles) John Taylor (Singles) David Carter & Nick Shelvey (Doubles)
Result: 3-2
Sunday 02/08/2015 13:00 Away to Dorset
For our last match we travelled to Bournemouth to play Dorset in the hope that a 3-2 win would retain our place in the top division. Tie-breaks did not serve us well!! John Taylor managed a gutsy win to take the third set tie-break in his singles match, David Carter and Nick Shelvey won their second doubles similarly but Eddie Fox’s singles and the other doubles went to Dorset on the third set tie-breaks!!!
Result: 2-3
At the time of writing it would seem that we, the 65 team, will be relegated to Division 2 for 2016 but despite that disappointment I can say we have played some great tennis and had a really enjoyable season. My thanks go all of our team, to John Kingston of course who took up the challenge when required but especially to David Carter who played brilliantly despite an extremely painful knee problem that reduced his mobility somewhat. I’m pleased to report that David’s knee replacement operation has just been performed successful and of course we wish well and we have high hope for his performances next year!
Nick Shelvey