Newcastle Tennis Club senior match reports, June 2015

Seniors / Division 7 Mixed League

This week saw some great successes for the Newcastle Tennis Club. The Mixed League A Team has won Division 7. This team is captained by Brendan O’Connor and comprises Kay Speedy, Jane McIlwrath, Hazel Carder, Wendy Laffin, Ryan Speedy, Eugene McGuigan and James Moore.  The team played consistently well over seven fixtures, with Hazel and James being notably successful in playing in every fixture and winning all their matches. This means that the team qualifies for play-off matches in an effort to bring home the League Challenge Cup, currently held by Windsor C team.  Play-offs are held in the last week of June, so watch this space!

Division 4 Men’s Evergreens

Also covering itself in glory was the Men’s Evergreens team. This team has out-stripped every other team in the Division comfortably, and won by a hefty margin. Trevor Long played in every match and didn’t drop a set, Eugene played 5 out of 6 matches, also not dropping a set. Paddy Dornan, John Lowry and captain Stephen Brown played in most of the matches dropping a set or two along the way. Brothers Johnny and Pierre Burns also played, winning one of their matches. Overall the Newcastle men won all 6 fixtures, and won 21 out of 24 matches played, , a comprehensive victory. Captain Stephen Brown was hoping for a whitewash, and he got one! Well done.

Women’s Evergreens

A Team

This team has won 4, drawn 2 and lost 1 of their matches and is therefore likely to finish in the upper end of their division. Captained by Wendy Laffin, and ably supported by Hazel Carder, Patricia Stewart, Dolores Dornan, Liz Brown, Joan Moore and kay Speedy, the Ladies have done very well. Friday 19^th saw them at their final Evergreen match away at the Belfast Boat Club, where two of their matches went to tiebreaks and were taken by the Newcastle team, letting them win the fixture 3-1.Captain Wendy Laffin said she was very happy with a good squad and grateful to everyone who played, especially if they had to travel.

B team

Friday 19^th June saw the final fixture for the Ladies Evergreen B Team. Having played 6 fixtures already, drawn 4 and lost 2, the girls decided there was nothing to lose, and all to gain, and started off in high spirits, hoping to come through. However, this week’s opponents were the Civil Service Team, currently sitting unassailably at the top of the division.  And unassailable they proved to be. Kay and Gabrielle won one of their two matches, the only one to be gained all evening.  The Civil Service team had years of experience and a beautiful capacity to just place the ball exactly where their opponents (try as they might) were unable to reach it. They won convincingly and are now the winners of Division 3. Everyone shared a delicious supper at the Clubhouse before the two teams parted company. Captain Rachel Corrigan would like to thank all the team members for all their hard work, and all the great food they supplied this season. Supper over, the B team girls hightailed it round to O’Hare’s to meet some of their fellow Evergreeners, for a well-deserved end of league social evening. All agreed that their tennis has improved by playing in the leagues: win, lose or draw, you always learn something new by playing with different people, and the opportunities to meet other Clubs and play tennis are well worth the effort.

C Team

The C Team Ladies had an easy night of it on Friday, socialising in O’Hare’s because they had a bye that week.  This new tean did not win any fixtures, but that didn’t spoil the fun, and all who played have gained massively in experience and confidence and are already thinking and planning for next year. Well done to everyone involved, and to Captain Danielle Gorman whose first outing as captain has been very well handled indeed.