Warwickshire Men’s tennis side pulled off an extraordinary 5-4 victory over favourites Suffolk on Day 2 of County Week, Group 2 at Roehampton, despite trailing 1-2 after the first round of matches. Gavin Henderson, the Warwick Boat Club Rackets Manager, opted to keep his close-knit side unchanged after they had thrashed Essex 7-2 the previous day, and they did not let him down, keeping their nerve in a string of sudden-death Championship tiebreaks. Warwick Boat Club coach Cameron Malik from Stratford and former national junior champion Luca Pow from Solihull won two out of three rubbers,  including a battling straight sets victory over the Suffolk second pair Ryan Lambert and Benjamin Smith. They had earlier taken charge to win a crucial Championship tiebreak 10-4 to defeat the thirds Matthew Kirby and James Ling.

Mason Recci and Luke Hammond looked a class act as they narrowly edged out Oscar Cutting and Ben Jones 10-8 in the tightest of sudden death deciders, while the Warwickshire Thirds OliverPlaskett and Harry Thursfield  also fought their way through a Championship tiebreak 10-3 to beat Kirby and Ling. Warwickshire went into the third round 4-2 up but after their second and third pairs each lost tight matches, everything hinged on Recci and Hammond beating the Suffolk Thirds. With spectators’ nerves jangling, they raised their game and smoothed past the dogged opposition 6-3 6-2 to record a very welcome win, to the delight of their vociferous supporters and captain Gavin Henderson.

“This was a fantastic victory,” he said. “Suffolk are extremely strong and we knew this would be probably our toughest match of the week as we try to make it back-to-back promotions to get to Group 1. Everyone played their hearts out in what was a real team effort – and when we finally notched up that fifth rubber and knew we’d done it, I felt ecstatic and very relieved. We’ve just got to try to keep up this sort of form in what’s always an incredibly tough group.

The young Warwickshire women’s side, had less luck in several knife-edge battles against far more experienced opponents, losing to the highly-fancied Lancashire side. However the strength of the opposition gave new captain Lianne Candappa from Warwick  the chance to experiment with untried pairings and blood two of her talented juniors T’Nae Diamond Paisley and Isabella Taylor. Despite a back injury, former junior international Candappa, now a top coach  played in two of the rubbers, the first with Lucie Butler from Leamington and in the second with Paisley and in the latter rubber, the Midlanders were only narrowly defeated 7-10 by the talented Lily and Livia Harper. The Warwickshire Firsts Holly Reid and Giorgie Jones took the only rubber of the day with a stylish victory over the Lancashire thirds.

Inter-County Week: Results:

Roehampton, Men’s Group 2

Warwickshire beat Suffolk 5-4

Raynes Park, London, Women’s Group 3

Warwickshire lost to Lancashire 1-8