British Tennis - Lawn Tennis Association

Orchard LTC are competing in AEGON Team Tennis Hertfordshire Men’s Division 3.

Aleem Cummins, the captain of Orchard LTC Men’s second team describes their latest fixture in the Team Tennis Hertfordshire season

With Orchard two matches into our AEGON Team Tennis season with two win's under our belt we were keen to maintain the momentum. After a strong closely fought match against David Lloyd the week prior, where a third round tie-breaker was the deciding factor, the team had really learnt the benefits of having our fifth man on the sidelines supporting as well as stepping into the doubles matches to play one of the key parts in the success.

Adam Reid hitting a trademark backhand

Being asked to blog by the LTA has really injected some razzmatazz, pomp, pageantry and fun into our matches. We were very tempted to play themed music as our players walked on court!

Codicote are without doubt one of our strongest local rivals and we always have some strong men's matches against them in various local leagues. With Captain Aleem missing and Harrison preparing for exams, we were a reshuffled team, but luckily an equally strong one with reinforcements happy to step in. John Gardiner (No.1), Adam Reid (No.2), Stuart Leach (No.3), Simon Young (No.4) and Steve Friend (Doubles supremo) was the Orchard line up. The conditions grounded what a tough affair the match was going to be with extreme winds, as well as torrential horizontal rain!

Harrison driving a forehand

John 'the hunter' Gardiner maintained his fantastic winning run with a comprehensive singles win against Ian. The dynamic duo of Adam & Simon teamed up against the strong pairing of Richard & Tony, a line-up event which had happened a few weeks prior in another local league. Adam & Simon managed to steam ahead early on and secure the win. Stuart & Steve took part in the other doubles against Tom & Lunan which was a lot closer, but the Stuart & Steve combo managed to get what proved to be a 'key win'.

Adam and Simon doubling up

The next round Adam took on Tony in the singles and managed to follow John's lead. Luckily this secured the four rubbers required for Orchard. The two remaining singles matches were a lot closer affairs. Stuart had a tough game against Tom who was playing some fantastic tennis and managed to get a fantastic win for Codicote. Lunan followed up with a championship tiebreak win against a resilient Simon

Team captain Aleem, who was holidaying in Turkey with his family, was reported to be “tickled pink” on hearing the match result. We have massive respect for our Codicote compatriots, so it was great for us to come through a scintillating afternoon of tennis. Hopefully, we can win the league in our next match at Rye Park.

View the rubber results from the match

Result: Orchard Men beat Codicote Men 8-4