Veteran teams roll back years to reach national finals
THE Men’s Veteran Teams at Leicester Forest East Tennis Club have reached the National Finals of three prestigious tournaments, beating a host of major clubs in each competition, including both the renowned Warwick Boat Club and Roehampton teams, writes Neil Phillips.
At the core of their success are members who have played together for the club teams for over 45 years, including current County Champion Steve Brett, Dave O’Sullivan, Mike King and Steve Stroud.
The other team members regularly play for the club and Leicestershire in many competitions, including current Wimbledon over-45s champion
Gordon Armstrong, county captains Steve Sharp and Gary Van Der Byl, Professor Chris Harwood of Loughborough University and relative newcomers Mark Denby and Gary Howard.
In the finals, the over-45 LFE team will play St George’s Hill in Leicester tomorrow, the over-55s team will play Towers in Bedford on Saturday, November 27, and the over-50s team will play Gidea Park in London on Sunday, December 5.
Both Steve Brett and Steve Stroud are eligible for all three finals while Steve Sharp and Prof Chris Harwood are eligible to play in two.
Captain Steve Stroud praised the “fantastic competitive spirit and resilience of all the teams”, with matches being won on single games and thrilling tie-breaks.
He picked out the contributions of Mike King and Dave O’Sullivan, who have qualified for the over-55s European Finals for the first time, after representing LFE for many years.
All three teams have also qualified for a European competition in Spain later this year.
LFE chairman John Noon said they were “so proud of their incredible achievement, beating much larger clubs”, and put their success down to “the hard practice the team put in playing in the LFE Indoor Dome”.