Division 1 was the first experience for any Suffolk tennis player and with a squad of 10 they went down to Eastbourne with high hopes of avoiding relegation.
Captain Jez cowley was in his 20th year and with his core group of matt hough ben smith Myles Orton Ashley watling matt kirby and Ollie Sutton he knew suffolk were looking good. He had 3 future stars in ben jones paul midgley and Ryan lambert who were there to experience what will hopefully be a regular position for suffolk in the elite division.
Playing against counties such as Hertfordshire Lancashire Kent, Surrey and Derbyshire little old suffolk may have felt intimidated but they held their own and narrowly missed out on their goal of staying up.
First day was a brutal start, cowley injured himself in the warm up and despite trying to play through the injury was forced to pull out of the match and that would see his on court involvement ended for the week.
Ollie Sutton can in for the remaining two matches but a shell shocked suffolk suffered a disappointing defeat despite Ashley watling and kirby picking up 2 impressive wins.
Day 2 saw suffolk take Hertfordshire all the way but fall short by a point here and there to lose 5-4. Again the impressive watling and kirby managed 2 wins.
Day 3 was suffolks first win against Lancashire and it was a fantastic performance from all with an impressive 8-1 demolition.
Day 4 was the big match v Kent as this would all but decide who went down with Lancashire and it was a heated and highly competitive tie whichh Kent edged with 3 7-6 in the final set victories which all but ruined suffolks chances of survival. However mathematically a suffolk win against the undefeated Derbyshire and Surrey win against Kent would mean survival and boy did suffolk go all out!
Yet again final set tiebreaks were the undoing of Suffolk and they were unable to survive but it was a brave a valiant fight and ben jones made an impressive debut and paul midgley also came in on the final day to impress.
Watling and kirby were the stand out pair for suffolk and in the absence of their captain on court really shone and led the team by example. Kirby won the captains prize this year and impressed with his professionalism, on court efforts and team support.
Cowley put his personal disappointment to one side and now is looking to get his group of stars back together to make another push not just for division 1 but for the holy grail of the title. Suffolk are no longer minnows we are a force in men's tennis and look forward to continued competition in the top tier.