Cornwall's 'fledging' over 75 Seniors County Tennis squad ventured over the Tamar last week for their first foray into the hurly burly of inter-county tennis, writes Graham Talling.
With some trepidation and completely untried, the five ancients took on the might of Dorset's tennis oldies with a racket to racket face off which ultimately was a court too far for the Cornishmen.
The combination of travel fatigue and the unfamiliar 'AstroTurf' court surface took its toll on the visiting team who were all brought up the hard way on Cornish tarmac surfaced courts.
After a gruelling battle in hot, windless conditions Cornwall came away one rubber to three (six sets to two) worse off after their endeavours.
Much was learnt from this first experience though and perhaps most importantly the need to travel to away matches the day prior to the event to ensure arriving fresh and fit for the forthcoming encounter.
After returning home last week our, now blooded, vintage vets prepared to take on their next opponents at the Cornish home base of The Heron Tennis Centre at Newquay.
This clash took place last Thursday and was against the Gloucestershire County players all of whom trained and played together as members of East Gloucester Tennis Club, a mammoth complex indeed compared to our Cornish tennis facilities.
Our, now intrepid, five seniors comprising Graham Talling (Newquay Heron Tennis Centre captain), Harry Fletcher and Phil Rowland (Liskeard Tennis Club), Michael Parry (Wadebridge Tennis Club) and Brian Davis (St Austell Tennis Club) came together at the Heron Tennis Centre on Thursday and decided again to adopt the policy of fielding all five players in the match substituting the fifth player at the mid match point.
This decision was made in order that all five of the squad were involved win or lose.
At the end of the first rubber both Cornwall pairs had secured hard fought wins over their Gloucestershire counterparts but this lead was eroded at the conclusion of the second pairs rubber with a narrow tie break win to Gloucester.
This meant the first pair had to secure a win in their second rubber match to avoid drawn rubbers and a possible defeat based on count back calculations!
A further tense half hour ensued while the Cornwall first pair took the decision to the wire with another tie break eventually securing a win.
The bottom line resulted in a three rubbers to one, six sets to four and 43 games to 40 victory for
Cornwall over Gloucestershire after a gruelling four and a half hour battle.
The squad are back into their 'Sleep & Train Mode' now in preparation for their last two matches at home against home counties Essex and away with a long haul trip to Suffolk.
