2009 Inter-Services Championships Results

2009 Inter-Services Championships Results

Navy Team win for the first time in 17 years!

(link to pdf!-individual results)

After weeks and weeks of seemingly continuous rain, the sun eventually came out to shine on SW19 for the Inter-Services ‘A’ Tennis Championships at the beginning of August.  Navy Tennis too saw a very large black cloud disappear over the horizon, as brightness emerged in the form of a squad full of intense grit, determination and confidence.  After years in the wilderness and a very closely fought Championships, the Men’s Team finally brought home the Trophy - a feat not accomplished for 17 years.  Additionally, the Women’s Vets convincingly won their competition and the Women’s team came within a whisker of snatching the trophy from the Army.  Overall, this was an outstanding performance from an in-form Navy squad which completely dominated the Inter-Services Championships.

On day one, the Women’s team captain Lt Cdr Katharine Rackham, took the bull by the horns and won both her rubbers.  Victories also from Surg Lt Cdr Jo Cooke and Surg Lt Lara Herbert MBE took the Women to 4 rubbers going into day two, equal to the Army and three ahead of the RAF - their best performance in years.

The Men’s team got off to a tremendous start as well.  Of particular note, rookie ET Scott Nicholls, a Part-Two trainee at HMS COLLINGWOOD and a former Scottish junior champion, impressed with his speed and accuracy around the court.  Nicholls, 19 from Dundee, only joined the Navy in April this year, and said after his first win against the RAF that he was extremely nervous about playing his first ever match for the Navy at Wimbledon.  Despite this however, he won both his rubbers, as did stalwart Navy Men’s captain, 38 yr old CPO (PT) Steve Losh, who gave a masterclass performance.  At the end of the first day, the Men’s team were narrowly ahead of the Army (3) and RAF (2) on 4 rubbers.

On the second day the heavens opened and it looked unlikely that there would be any tennis on the hallowed turf.  Play moved inside and new rules came into force.  Sudden death replaced the advantage point and the third set was removed in favour of a 10 point Championship tie-break.  Cooke and Herbert secured their first win for the Women taking their tally to 5 rubbers.  The Men too started in good form.  The pairing of Losh and Nicholls gained an easy victory over their Army opponents putting them on 5 rubbers.  By early afternoon play returned to the grass courts.  The amended rules still applied however.  Capt Simon Brand and Mid Simon Mayell went into their second match on the grass determined to make amends for their earlier loss and easily disposed of the Army pairing putting them on 6 rubbers, 1 rubber ahead of their nearest Army rivals.

First on the grass for the Women’s team was Lt Cdr Katharine Rackham and Lt Kate Scott who levelled the Championship with the Army by winning their 6th rubber.  Cooke and Herbert took the Navy into the lead by winning their 7th rubber and with only two more matches to play, tension was high.  AET Sarah-Jane Pritchard and Lt Eleanor Stack couldn’t quite overcome the Army pairing which meant the Army had tied the Championships on 7 rubbers, but, had won overall, based on the ruling of the greatest number of sets won over the two days;  16 Sets compared to the Navy’s tally of 15.

As the Women’s Championships came to a close, nervousness and excitement rippled from one end of Wimbledon to the courts outside Court 1 for the remaining fixtures of the Men’s Championship.  There were 4 matches left and the scores were tight: RN – 6, Army – 5 and RAF – 3.  The Navy needed only two more victories to secure the trophy.  On court for their first match against the RAF came Royal Marine pairing Cpl Adrian Talbot and Cpl Greg Andrews.  Both players have years of experience and competitive tennis behind them.  Talbot was a top 5 national in Australia as a junior and Andrews was in the Zimbabwe Davis Cup squad at the age of 20.  The match was all square at one set all and in a nail biting tie-break the pair eventually lost out (11-9) after having been one point away from victory on (9-6). The RAF did the Navy a favour by beating the Army in their final game and with so it came to Losh and Nicholls to grind out a victory.  Things were not looking good after losing the first set, but in a highly charged second set, the Navy pairing stamped their authority on the Championships levelling the match.  A rallying call was needed and both raised their level of tennis beyond anyone’s expectation producing some of the most remarkable shots of the Championship.  Eventually they pounded the RAF’s No.1 seeds into submission winning the Championship tie-break (10-3).  Overcome with emotion, Losh said, “I’m very proud of the team’s performance and of their spirit which enabled us to win this tournament.  To win this now, after 17 years and with such a great group of talented players is one of the proudest moments of my life.”

Captaining the winning team at the Inter-Services has capped a good year for Losh especially having been absent on duty in Afghanistan last year. He regained his singles title at the RN tennis championships which took place on the grass courts at Burnaby Road in late July.  The female entry was a little disappointing, however, the male entry this year was far better than in previous years with an excellent turnout from Faslane.  Competition was fierce but fair.  Surg Lt Cdr Jo Cooke took the ladies’ title and in the ladies’ doubles, Cooke teamed up with Surg Lt Lara Herbert and proved too strong for Lt Cdr Katharine Rackham (the losing finalist in the singles) and her partner Lt Cdr Sophie Shaugnessy.  In the men’s competition, Mid Simon Mayell teamed up with veteran Capt Simon Brand, (RNLTA chairman who incidentally is over twice his age) and made amends for his singles loss by winning this title.  Mayell also won the mixed doubles title with the chairman’s wife, Catherine so proving that he knows how to make a good impression!  The veterans competition saw Capt Simon beat Mr Nick Williams (ex Capt RM) in a hard hitting singles final and the doubles also went their way as they paired up to reinvigorate a partnership which had seen them win their first open doubles title together in 1982.

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