East Glos welcomes The Forty Five Club for annual friendly match
On the weekend of 30th and 31st july 2016 East Glos welcomed The Forty Five Club for the annual friendly match, a fixture which has been enjoyed for decades.
The Forty Five Club was founded in 1974 with the aim of drawing together veterans tennis players (men 45 and over, women 40 and over) to provide them with wider opportunities for playing tennis competitively or simply for pleasure. The club has grown to its present size of 600 members which includes a number who live overseas in many different countries.
Event organiser and East Glos member Felicity Thomas takes up the story.
Our opponents included some who had played for their country at national and international levels, while most of the others play in ITF tournaments at home and overseas. About 40 members of 45 Club were in Italy in May with two of their ladies winning the Over 65 doubles in that Grade A tournament.
I was able to bring in seven East Glos members who had never played for us in this event. A big thank you to all the East Glos players, especially those who covered for withdrawals at short notice.
On Saturday afternoon we played mixed doubles, each team having six pairs. We held a small overnight lead. However, this was reversed on Sunday morning, devoted to ladies and men’s doubles. While our men ended up fairly even, our ladies found the opposition were too experienced. However it is a rare opportunity to play a friendly such as this, so they all feel they benefit from having to raise their game to compete at this level.
I stepped in to cover for a couple of sets and felt that the grass courts were playing well. The Forty Five Club certainly welcomed the opportunity to enjoy our courts and the friendly welcome they received. Unfortunately, rain has denied us the use of grass in recent years.
Nine of our guests stayed for dinner in the club on Saturday night, matched by a similar number of our members. Almost all players from both sides enjoyed an excellent buffet lunch on Sunday.
The photograph below shows those who played on Saturday. Though some played both days, the composition of the teams usually changes for Sunday.