This year, fourteen club teams were invited by Vets Tennis GB to represent Great Britain in the European Seniors Club Championships 2009. For the first time in several years, two teams returned as winners, one took second place and another achieved the bronze medal position.
Thorpe Wood Esporta from Peterborough moved on from the 35s age level to compete in the 45s in Rome. The team of Steffan Eggmayer, Graham Neale, Nick Fulwood, Steve Brett, Jeremy Bates and captain Alan Jordan secured victory with a sequence of convincing wins over LTC Emmen (NED), Cannolieri Roma (ITA), Ferratella Sporting Club (ITA) and finally Castiglione (ITA). The achievement was noted by Tennis Europe as breaking the dominance of Germany and Italy in all the other men’s age groups this year.
In Val do Lobo, Portugal,the Women’s 50 team from The Wimbledon Club captained by Gillian Bostelmann with Penny Mortimer, Penny Sheehan and Rosie Naunton-Morgan, first defeated top-seeded Olympia then Nomentano from Italy to meet the Dutch team, Shot. Penny Sheehan and Penny Mortimer snatched the second set of the deciding doubles in the final on the tie-break, trailed in the third set but came back to pull off victory in yet another tiebreak.
Also in Portugal, where 6 British women’s competed in all, the Women’s 60 team from Bridgwater of Jacky Boothman (captain), Ellie Krocke and Ann Guy won all their group matches against RLC Barcelona (ESP), Lidingo TK (SWE) and Health City (NED) with ease to earn a place in the final against the very strong French team, Lagardere Paris.
This was eventually won by the French 2-1 on the deciding doubles.
The other medal winners were the Leicestershire Club’s Men’s 50 team who travelled to the island of Elba, Italy. Jeremy Trafford captained the team consisting of Ashley Broomhead, Richard Wayman and Tony King. The first day saw a win over Lugano (SUI) and a tough encounter the next day with the eventual winners Lingener TV GW (GER) featuring the world No 1, Pierre Godfroid. A win against CT Tortoreto (ITA) saw the team into the third place play-off against Royal Astrid BEL) which was won 4-1.
Congratulations to all these teams and to all the others who competed. In the Men’s 50, South Ribble were sixth; Leicestershire and West Bridgford were sixth and eighth respectively in the Men’s 55; Streetly achieved fifth place in the Men’s 60; the Forty Five Club and Northern ended in seventh and eighth places in the Men’s 65. In the Women’s events, Wimbledon was fourth and St George’s Hill eighth in the 40s; West Bridgford took sixth position in the 50s and Warwick Boat Club was fifth in the 60s.
