2009 Eastbourne Ladies Over-35s

The third weekend in August saw the Cornwall ladies over 35 tennis team journey to Eastbourne for their fourth visit. The beautiful grass at Devonshire Park lived up to the players’ expectations once again bathed in very warm sunshine throughout the 3 days of play.

Friday saw the Cornish team take on old rivals Cumbria. The team this year comprised Cara Rowe (Truro), Dinah Crellin (Newquay), Judith Ward (Truro) and captain Dory Crellin (Truro). Sally-Ann Homer (St Agnes) was unable to travel due to injury.

Cornwall beat Cumbria 4-1 overall which set us up for a good match on the Sunday against North Wales. Sadly Isle of Man could not field a team this year so Saturday was a rest day for the Cornish ladies. Having watched North Wales on the Saturday beat Cumbria quite convincingly, we knew we had a tough battle on our hands.

Cara opened up play on the Sunday against Vicki Broadbent with the Wales player proving just too strong. Dory then played the number 1 player Karen Fisher and again she proved too powerful for Dory. After both singles we had it all to play for. Judith and Dinah played the second pair from North Wales and won comfortably, so the match was poised at 2 matches to 1 in Wales’ favour.

Dinah and Judith then played the first pair, Vicki and Karen, who proved too strong for the Cornish pair, with a straight sets win securing promotion for North Wales. The Cornish team had just missed out on promotion but Cara and Dory went on to beat the second couple very comfortably bringing the match to a close, 3 – 2 to North Wales.

Dory said “The team had played well”. “With a little more consistency and doubles practice we hope to lift ourselves out of group 6 in 2010”.

Affiliated to the Cornwall LTA

Club telephone 01872 274329