The 65s had a very successful year. We had a strong team and won all our five matches 4-0 or 3-1 which means we shall be promoted to Division 1 next year. We are very lucky to have a competitive and committed squad of Sally Farman, Angela Roy, Jane Ling, Mary Ogden and Linda Green. Well done team! We shall look forward to stiffer competition next year and a return to playing singles as well as doubles.
Report by Sally Farman
The Norfolk Ladies O60’s team have had a successful campaign in this years Seniors Inter-County Championship.
They were drawn in Division 1A home against Lancashire, Cheshire and Lincolnshire with the matches being played at the David Lloyd Norwich Club. Their away matches were against Hereford and Worcester, and Dorset and so they travelled to Malvern and to Bournemouth respectively to compete.
A strong squad was fielded with singles players Tish Peal(captain) and Caroline Blincoe who then teamed up to play doubles. Then the doubles pair in the team was made up of Sue Rich accompanied by either Audrone Strasauskiene or Jane Ray. Jenny Coady was on standby as reserve for all matches.
Over the 5 matches, which meant 25 rubbers played altogether, only 2 rubbers were lost by Norfolk in total, which is an amazing achievement. As a result the Norfolk Ladies now have to play Essex in the final play off. This will take place on Saturday 30th November at the David Lloyd Club in Dudley.
The 60’s have had a good year with a keen and dedicated team who have made the matches fun and enjoyable, and I thank them hugely for their commitment. Thank you also to David Lloyd Norwich for making courts available for our home matches.
The team look forward to playing in the final in a couple of months, fingers crossed for a good match.
Report: Trish Peal
The Norfolk Ladies Over 40’s team had a very challenging season in Division 2.
The squad of players were Katie Brooks, Jeannette Baxter, Suzie Scarlett, Annika Richardson, Andrea Mccombe, Lisa Lowe, Verena Rowan and Caroline Rose.
We started the season playing East of Scotland at home on the indoor courts at David Lloyd.
Jeannette and Andi won their singles matches.
Katie and Suzie won both their doubles matches.
It was a great team performance.
Norfolk won 4-1.
We travelled to Cambridgeshire and we encountered a very strong experienced team.
Jeannette had an excellent singles victory .
Norfolk lost 1-4.
We then played Bedfordshire away on a very hot day on their indoor courts and outside on an astro turf court!
They certainly had ‘home’ advantage!
Norfolk won 2 out of the 3 doubles matches and Jeannette just lost her singles on a Championship Tiebreak.
It was an excellent team performance.
Norfolk lost 2-3.
We played Buckinghamshire at home on the blue courts at East Anglia Tennis and Squash Club.
It proved to be a first class venue with excellent courts and a brilliant afternoon tea – amazing sandwiches and Victoria Sponge Cake!
Jeannette had a brilliant singles victory, winning on a Championship Tiebreak.
Katie and Suzie had an outstanding doubles win.
Norfolk just lost 2-3.
We finished the season playing against a very strong Lincolnshire team at home.
Jeannette and Annika recorded our only victory of the day with a good doubles win.
Norfolk lost 1-4.
We finished 5th in our group, but several of our matches were very close.
There were some excellent singles and doubles victories throughout the season.
I would like to thank all of the team for their outstanding effort, commitment and enthusiasm this season.
We have already started preparing for next Summer, with regular weekly team practices throughout this Winter and next Spring.
I am very much hoping the team will be sponsored in 2020 by Dunlop and we will be wearing Dunlop sweatshirts and team kit for our matches next Summer.
We are already looking forward to our matches next Summer!!!
Report by Katie Brooks
“2019 proved to be ‘one season too far’ in the top flight for the Men’s over 55 team, though circumstances didn’t help. An unkind draw that saw most of the strong teams, including Lancashire, Leicestershire and Essex placed in division 1A with Norfolk was compounded by the unavailability of key players; Robin Chipperfield missed the whole season, Mark Nicholls only played once and Ian Quinton was plagued by injury.
The season did not get off to a good start with Norfolk only picking up one rubber, a singles win by Ian Quinton, in the first two fixtures which were away to Essex and Leicestershire respectively.
Hope was briefly re-kindled when Mark Nicholls and Stuart Brabben led the way in a tight 3-2 win over Devon where Norfolk won all three doubles (Ian Quinton & Nathan Dickinson picked up the other rubber), albeit this was followed by a heavy loss to Lancashire. In the last match a win over Hants would have given Norfolk a chance of staying up and it started well with Ian Quinton winning the first singles. However an injury to Ian then forced his withdrawal from the doubles in a promising position and a narrow loss in a Champions tiebreak in the other doubles meant Norfolk lost 1-4 and ultimately finished bottom of their group.
This disappointing end to the team’s stay in Division 1 is no reflection on the commitment shown by the squad, particularly the Henery brothers and Nathan Dickinson, plus Gary Thrower who filled in for the Leicestershire match at very short notice; the opposition were just better!”
Report by Ian Quinton
Division 2B
Team: Ian Blackburn, Adam Watkinson, James Tomlinson & Andrew Devaney
Overall we had mostly close encounters with the other 4 counties in the group. The same line-up was fielded for all the matches which meant this year we were able to fulfil our fixtures. We played well against Avon beating them 3-2, with James producing a battling performance to win his singles, which ultimately proved the decisive match. However, we lost narrowly against both Oxfordshire and Derbyshire 3-2 in competitive encounters, which could have gone either way. The last match against Staffordshire, who were group winners, was a disappointing 5-0 lost although there was not much in it between the sides; more a case of not taking good opportunities on the day. Everyone in the team put in some good performances over the course of the matches and hopefully we will have something to build upon for next year in Division 2.