Warwickshire tennis team celebrates promotion at County Week

With both sides’ promotion hopes riding on this match, there was all to play for, though the Bears’ superior rubbers tally meant that victory, however tight the margin, would ensure their return to the elite Group 1 for the first time since 2010.

Undeterred by two narrow 4-5 defeats earlier in the week by South Wales and Yorkshire, thanks to the agonising loss of several sudden-death Championship tiebreaks, the Midlanders came out fighting, the stand-out partnership of Warwick Boat Club coach Cameron Malik from Stratford and former national junior champion Luca Pow from Solihull taking their opening rubber against the Bucks Seconds, Finn Lester and Barnaby Smith on a nerve-jangling Championship tie-break 11-9.

This set the pattern for the rest of the day, with three rubbers going to sudden-death tiebreaks the first pair Luke Hammond and Mason Recci from Solihull squeaking through against both the First and Third pairs, and Coventry’s Richard Partridge and Oliver Plaskett beating Lester and Smith from 2-8 down in the Championship tiebreak. The Bucks First pair’s straight sets win over Partridge and Plaskett was their team’s only point of the day and once Malik and Pow had clinched the crucial rubber to secure a winning 5-1 lead, the match was over.

The result is a triumph for captain Gavin Henderson, the Warwick Boat Club Rackets Manager and his close-knit side who have achieved a string of back-to-back promotions since they were languishing in Group 5 back in 2019.

Cameron Malik and Luca Pow proved the pick of the pairs, dropping just two rubbers all week, while Recci, Partridge, former national junior champion Harry Lazell from Warwick Boat Club, Harry Thursfield and the two former Stratford coaches Hammond and Plaskett all battled valiantly and contributed crucial wins to keep Warwickshire in the hunt.

“I’m unbelievably proud of how our team all kept fighting and urging one another on,” said Gavin Henderson. “We didn’t have the best players on paper but we had something a lot more important – grit and a fantastic never-say-die attitude.

"We have a really good blend of youth and experience and noone’s head dropped even after we’d lost to South Wales and Yorkshire, when we failed to clinch a string of Championship tiebreaks.

Buckinghamshire started the final day with three wins while we only had two but because we’d beaten Essex 7-2 and Suffolk 5-4 we had two more rubbers than they did, so we knew we simply had to beat them to realise our long-held dream of getting up into Group 1. It’s a real thrill to think we’ll be competing against many of Britain’s top players next year – and given the team spirit I saw this week, I know they’ll play their hearts out and make their mark at the highest level.”

Sadly Warwickshire women’s young side, missing several of their top players, faced a string of setbacks as they were relegated from Group 3 at Raynes Park, London. After beating stragglers Norfolk 7-2, they lost a thriller 4-5 to Gloucestershire on the final day, when only a 7-2 win or better would have ensured that they stayed up. Their captain, former junior international Lianne Candappa from Warwick, brought in several talented juniors for vital experience at senior level, including 14-year-old T’Nae Diamond Paisley and Isabella Taylor, 17, both from Edgbaston Priory Club.

Holly Reid and Giorgie Jones, playing first pair for much of the week looked a class partnership, while Mary Hoggard, Lois Porter from Balsall Common and Elizabeth Massie from Rugby battled valiantly while partnering less experienced players. Kara Biggs from Warwick Boat Club and Leamington’s Lucie Butler also played for part of the week and Candappa will look to regroup and build on their encouraging performances next season.