On Thursday May 25th the Norwich team took to the grass of St George’s Hill in Surrey for the Worldpay National Premier League club Finals. The team automatically qualifying for the finals after finishing top of the South East North division, competing against London based teams. The finals event comprising of 16 divisional and playoff winning teams, with the format of two pairs from each team playing one another - with a shootout if the rubber score was tied after the 4 matches. The event was live streamed on the Tennis Channel.

The finals squad consisted of Samantha Hickman, Maddie Brooks, Frances Evans, Amy Partridge, Emily Barrett and Olivia Parson.

On the first day the team played David Lloyd Harrogate, Brooks partnering Parson and Hickman/Barrett teaming up. Norwich securing a comfortable 3-1 win to advance to the quarterfinals.

The fourth seeds of David Lloyd Sunderland were up next on Friday, in a very tight contest it was 2-2 after the 4 doubles matches. A 10 point match tiebreak shootout was played with Brooks and Evans selected to play. In a tense tiebreak Brooks/Evans held their nerve to win 10-8 against a tough Sunderland team.

Winchester were the opponents on Saturday in the Semifinal. Amy Partridge was brought in to strengthen the team for the latter stages of the competition in a move that paid off, with the pairings of Brooks/Partridge and Hickman/Parson performing well to secure a dominant 4-0 win.

Finals day loomed with Norwich up against a strong University of Bath team, consisting of American College and British University players. In front of a 200 hundred strong crowd and the help of ball kids, some excellent tennis was played with Bath narrowly taking victory, playing the better tennis on the day.

Nonetheless, it was a fantastic accomplishment by the team finishing as the second best team in the country in an event where over 100 teams entered. A big thank you to St George’s Hill for hosting a brilliant event, NPL organiser Mike Dixon and Norwich team captain Samantha Hickman for her hard work organising.

And also a special mention to the following players who represented the Norwich team during the group stages: Karen Highfield, Lucy Brooks, Rosie Pooley, Maria Andrews, Jodie Tiley and Jeannette Baxter.