Our Ladies team took part in National Division 2 this summer for the first time. For our first match at this level we were unfortunate to be drawn away to a strong St George's Hill team and suffered a 5-1 defeat on their artificial grass courts. Normal Wilton service was, however, resumed with a convincing 5-1 victory against Esporta Royal Berkshire who had been a regular member of the NCL Division 1 until this season. We then followed up with three successive victories against the the top three club teams in Kent: Sundridge Park, Sevenoaks and Tunbridge Wells. The Sevenoaks match was extremely dramatic. We had to concede two rubbers because of Jacinta Gunn most unfortunately breaking her ankle and because of Alex McDonald's illness. The remaining four players held on to win the tie break shoot out by 2-1. Lisa Losseva played very well to win all her three singles matches but the undoubted singles star was Kim Freebairn who won all five singles matches with consummate ease. Congratulations to all the players who represented Wilton in a very successful season. As well as those named above we are very grateful to Beth Frith, Masako Mii, Greta Musu, Aya Toyoda and Rochelle van der Walt for their considerable contributions. The NCL is likely to be re-organised next year so we do not yet know whether Wilton will be promoted to compete against the top teams in the country in National Division 1.

 

After their narrow failure to be promoted from NCL Surrey Division 1 last season, our Mens team took on several of the same opponents again this summer. The highlight was gaining our revenge against Roehampton 2 with a thrilling tie break shoot out victory. Purley were again defeated in the first match of the season and Sutton Tennis Academy 2 were also beaten with ease. A slightly-weakened team however lost convincingly to Westside 2 and so we needed an easy win against Magdalen Park in our last match to secure promotion. This however was never likely and despite gallant efforts the opposition maintained their 100% record.  We have been pleased to welcome four new players this season: Oliver Cantrell, Daryl Eaton, Miguel Eschilletti and Marian Velik. All performed well as did Ashley Balm, Ted Boyce, Henry Brooks, Alex Kamieniecki, Peter Schlamberger and Kenji Toyoda. It was sometimes difficult to know our best team and hopefully we will be able to field a more settled team next year and make a concerted effort to join our ladies team in one of the National Divisions.