Very well done and congratulations to Teresa, Pieter, David and Alan for their successful wins playing in new age groups at the ITF British Open Seniors Indoor Championships in Tipton last week.  Teresa won the 50s ladies singles and 50s doubles (partner, Anne). Sue and Pat reached the semis of the 60s Ladies Double. 

Pieter won the 50s Men's singles.  David reached the semis of the 50s Men's singles and 45s doubles but his partner had to then retire, and Alan reached the quarters of the 55s Men's singles.  A great week and a great start to 2019 for Cambs Senior Tennis.

We had a red and orange match against Suffolk on Saturday 5 January, with teams of 8 boys and 8 girls in both Red and Orange.  The U8 (Red) boys won 52 matches to 12 and the U8 (red) girls lost 35 matches to 29, however overall we won 81 matches to 47.

The U9 (Orange) boys and girls both won 28 matches to 12.  Great team effort just left the organisers exhausted.

Darius and Antonije won the Grade 3 U16 Doubles event in Ipswich earlier in the month and Darius has also won the Grade 4 Open Men's Tournament at the David Lloyd Centre in Hatfield on 23 December 2018.  Well done to both. .

A very successful mini red tournament was held on Sunday 6 January 2019 at Hills Road with ten courts playing at the same time.  The boys tournament was won by Etienne and Olivia won the girls tournament.  Well done to all.

Cambridgeshire beat Shropshire 5-4 and Northumberland 5-3 but lost to Herefordshire and Worcestershire 4-5 coming third overall with 4 points, 3 played, 14-12 Rubbers, 31-28 Sets, 52.5% Sets, 280-261 Games and 51.8% Games.  

As always, just putting the outcome and the results never begin to tell the full tale.  First day, we came up against a sharp Herefordshire & Worcestershire team.  A lot of close rubbers were fiercely contested, with chances not quite going our way.  Chad Richard battled back from a set down to close out a tough 3 set win, brilliant performance.  Strong clinical professional performances on their men's debut from Yujiro Onuma and Nick Ghaznavi.  

Middle Saturday and our opponents were Shropshire.  A lot of grit and resilience was shown throughout the team.  Again Yujiro put on a fighting display to beat a tough opponent in a 3 hour epic.  Matt Taylor ruthlessly demolished their No 1 and then teamed up with Nick Ghaznavi to clinch the tie 6-5 in an impressive doubles.  Chad Richard and CJ Kindered showed solid doubles nouse all weekend.  Always tough to take when you beat the eventual group champions but don't get promotion.

On the last day, Northumberland, to keep dreams of promotion alive we had to either win 9-0 or 8-1.  Things were looking good, going 3-0 up however it wasn't to be.  We were also relying on results between Herefordshire & Worcestershire and Shropshire.  

Lesson learnt and some strong experiences had which bodes well for future years. 

Congratulations to our Cambs County Tennis 45s Men's team (Left to Right - Andrew, David (captain), Scott, Alan and Pieter) who won the National Inter-County Championship Finals this weekend at David Lloyd Tennis Centre at Brierley Hill.  This is a brilliant achievement to win the overall Men's 45s Championship in the winners play off.  Out team already won their division playing five other teams over the summer in Division 1B with Surrey winning Division 1A.  At the end of the year the winners and runners up, of all the age group Inter-County divisions are invited to play in the final play offs to establish the overall winners.  This is the first time our men have won the overall 45s competition in a very long time and they deserve much praise.

Sue Rich received her Abbeycroft Leisure Services to Sport Awards last week from Living Sport in Cambridge - Congratulations.

U10 and U12 boys regional competitions at the David Lloyd Centre were won by Alex who now goes onto the National finals in London in December.  Congratulations Alex

Mia has won the U10 Regional competition at the David Lloyd Centre in Cambridge and will now go onto the National finals in London in December.  Well done Mia.