Tonbridge used this match at Holyport to blood three new members of the squad: Phil Holdaway, Will Tidy and George Nodder.

Ian Fuller kicked off the match with a singles against the son of ex-World-Champion Penny Lumley. The tennis was always elegant and entertaining but, in the end, youth prevailed. 

I then played another singles but was unable to win, losing in a reduced third set.

Our new stars then took to the court. All played well and at times showed signs of serious potential but were overcome in their singles matches by a mixture of inexperience and terrible handicap estimations by me! Sorry chaps.

However, the final match was a doubles: Holdaway and Nodder combined to take on their respective singles opponents. The OT pairing lost ground early on but once their confidence emerged they won 8 straight games to take the match 8 games to 6. A fantastic result with both players again showing serious potential.

So whilst the overall result was poor, the prospect of rematch next year will be very exciting.

Will C - Feb 2008