Suffolk Over 35s shine at Eastbourne
In a fantastic weekend of high standard tennis in the sun Suffolk over 35s took a strong squad of 6 to the Inter Counties Over 35s at Devonshire park in July.
Captained by Steve Smith, the rest of the team was James Yates, Gary Keens, Charles Fulcher, Hussein Ahmed and Liban Ahmed.
In a tough group of Nottinghamshire, Northamptonshire and Shropshire and every match sitting at 2-2 going into the final rubber, Suffolk managed to win 7 out of 9 doubles rubbers over the weekend, winning every final rubber and every match 3-2, with every player having a winning record over the weekend, a truly team performance. On Saturday against Northants they overturned a 2-0 deficit after the singles and after some inspired captain's decisions on pairings won all 3 doubles in straight sets for a fantastic team win with James Yates and Liban Ahmed winning a tough final rubber with some inspired tennis.
After a great doubles performance by Steve Smith and Liban Ahmed on the Sunday to get the match to 2-2 Hussein Ahmed and Gary Keens had to play the final rubber against Shropshire for promotion, who were also undefeated at that stage. After winning the first set they came back from 5-3 down in the second set saving 4 set points to win it 7-6 and secure promotion.
Another successful season for Suffolk Over 45s
Captained by Gary Keens, Suffolk Over 45s bounced back from their relegation from Division 1 last season with 3 wins and 2 defeats to leave them waiting on other results to see if they get promoted back to division 1.
With Ian Moore only able to play 2 of the 5 matches, and Hussein Ahmed also missing from the North Wales fixture, Rod Valentine and Andy Bedwell joined the squad for the away trips to North Wales and Staffordshire, with Charles Fulcher and Gary Keens playing all 5 matches.
Suffolk got the season off to winning ways beating Norfolk 3-2, with Ian Moore winning both of his rubbers.
Suffolk lost 3-2 to North Wales and Staffordshire back to back over a weekend in June in 2 really close encounters.
Suffolk beat Durham and Cleveland 4-1 away, with Hussein Ahmed winning both a singles and a doubles.
Suffolk then beat a strong Worcestershire team 3-2 in the tightest of matches in their final match of the season with both potential promotion and relegation on the line with Gary Keens winning a crucial singles, and after Gary and Rod Valentine had lost their doubles 14-12 in a champions tiebreak after missing 6 match points, Charles Fulcher and Hussein Ahmed came from a set down to win the deciding doubles 11-9 in a champions tiebreak after missing their 3 match points themselves to ensure Suffolk at least stay in Division 2 and give them a good chance of promotion depending on other results.