The Isle of Man men’s 35-and-over tennis team travelled to Devonshire Park, Eastbourne to compete in the Lawn Tennis Association Inter County Championships recently.

Played on one of the hottest late August bank holidays on record, it was always going to be a tough few days of play. After a number of years of a shortened format, the championships reverted to a full format of two singles and three doubles. This year the team was placed in Division 6a along with Wiltshire, South of Scotland and Cumbria.

On the Friday the team took on Wiltshire, a team they had played the previous year when losing to them 3-0. At second singles, Neil Ronan played Nick Bunyard and it was the Wiltshire player who took the win 6-2, 6-1. At first singles Nigel Hunter, returning to the team after a break of several years, took on John O’Meara. This was a very close match with Hunter winning the first 6-4, losing the second 2-6 and then unfortunately missing out in the third-set match tie-break 9-11.

Rob Mason and Jim Travers paired up for two doubles, losing out to Oli Harris and Jason Stevens 0-6 2-6 and then to O’Meara and Bunyard 3-6 1-6. This left it to Ronan and Hunter to rescue a rubber for the Isle of Man which they did with a tie-break winning third set against Harris and Stevens 6-4 2-6 10-3. Final score 4-1 Wiltshire.

On Saturday the team played South of Scotland, with Ronan and Hunter taking on twin brothers Mark and Gavin Picken in the singles. Both proved too strong for the Manx players, with Ronan losing to Mark 0-6 1-6 and Hunter going down 3-6 0-6 to Gavin.

It proved to be another tough day for Mason and Tarvers, losing firstly to Stuart Clarke and Roddy Mackintosh 2-6 2-6, then Mark and Gavin Picken 1-6 1-6.

Therefore it was down to Ronan and Hunter again to rescue a rubber against Clarke and Mackintosh. It was not to be this time though, losing out by the narrowest of margins in the third set tie-break 6-4, 5-7, 9-11 and South of Scotland ran out 5-0 winners.

The final day was the hottest of three and the island team took on Cumbria on the Devonshire Park Centre court. Ronan was on first against Andrew Steel and, in a match lasting nearly three hours, the Manx player couldn’t quite get on top of the match, losing out 6-7 2-6.

Hunter was next against David Herd which was again a very long match, with the island man winning the first 6-2, losing the next 6-7 and unfortunately losing the third set tie-break 6-10. Mason and Travers then took on Andrew Tweedie and Gareth Adams.

The Manx pair started well and it looked like playing on the show court might bring out their best tennis of the weekend, but they were unable to sustain it and lost the match 3-6 0-6.

This gave the Cumbria team an unassailable 3-0 lead and, with a long drive back the Manx team opted not to play the final two rubbers.

The team would again like to thank the Isle of Man Lawn Tennis Association for its continued support and also many thanks for the sixth year running to Sean Oates of ICR Retail Systems for his support of the team.