EG tennis players won a national title at the weekend when the Junior Veterans' (O-45 men, O-40 women) team beat Wimbledon in the final at Dudley.

After Marie Bell and Steve Evans had lost their first rubber 6-1, 2-6, 6-10 (tie-break), Neil and Lucy Howitt closed out a nail-biting victory in the match tie-break against Wimbledon's first pair so it was all to play for in the second round.

Neil and Lucy got off to a flyer and overwhelmed the Wimbledon second pair 6-1, 6-0, while Marie and Steve managed to take the vital first set against the first pair, before losing narrowly in the final set tie-break. "Neil and Lucy are an awesome pair to have playing above you," said Steve. "We just had to make sure we did our job and I'm glad we did enough to back them up. We were disappointed with the first match after winning the first set so easily but we played a lot better against their first pair. I have to say I agreed with Neil that it was nice to be playing in a 'junior' event of any kind at our age!"

EG almost had two teams in the finals this weekend but the ladies' Over-35s lost in their semi-final.