Aston Park’s teams have had a good summer in 2019 but given their chance again would replay a few key games where promotion, or being crowned champions, was on offer. The club was more successful in the Aylesbury & District Leagues played during the week than the week-end Buckinghamshire LTA league as it proved challenging to field teams at the week-end especially getting sufficient men willing, and able, to play.

Aylesbury and District League

Ladies 1 had a successful summer in Division 4 fighting to the very last match to be champions.  Unfortunately, the Tigerturf at Tring proved the team’s Achilles heel but it was a very credible 2nd place and hopefully promotion to Division 3 next year.  Aston Park’s Pamela Reid, Sarah Baker and Sue Hoey all were rated in the top 4 of league players according to the playing statistics.

Men’s 1 fought very hard and with some very close matches, took 3rd place, two points from the team finishing second.

Ladies 2 had a mixed season with one very good win and 2 draws, finishing in 5th place and hopefully staying in Division 5 for next summer.

Men’s 2 were in contention for promotion until the last couple of matches which did not go their way and they will remain in Division 6 next summer.

Mixed 1 found the summer matches to be very closely fought.  After a very successful winter with the team gaining promotion to Division 2, the summer teams in Division 3 proved stronger. Every match was close and it took a win in the final match to secure a position in Division 3 next summer by a count back of won sets.   

Mixed 2 shared out matches within a large pool of players and with a lack of regular partnerships finished 5th out of 7 teams.  Marsh Gibbon 1 in 7th place has been disqualified for not fielding teams so Aston Park will have to wait for the new summer leagues to be set up to see whether they contend Division 6 or Division 7 in 2020.

Intermediate Cup- Aston Park were crowned winners of the Intermediate Cup but not without some controversy. After a very close half-set win over Cublington, the team next faced Princes Risborough on their clay.  Again, the team performed very well and won 5-3 on the night to reach the final.  There are very strict rules about who is eligible to play Intermediate Cup and Aston Park stuck to the rules.  However, the two teams we were due to meet in the final did not and both were disqualified for fielding ineligible players. Aston Park therefore did not need to play a final but were crowned champions.  Special mention to Michael Chase and Pamela Reid who gained the key sets in both matches; Michael was the stand-out player on both evenings.

Buckinghamshire LTA Summer Shield Matches

The highlight of these league results was Mixed Medley 1 who won all but one match in Division 4 and should be promoted to Division 3 next summer. The loss to Burnham was not unexpected as Burnham had rather overpowered Aston Park last year but one set from Andrew Nurse and Pamela Reid meant that Burnham did not get the 100% set record they were seeking that afternoon (they only won 95.8% of sets for the summer!).

We entered a 2nd Mixed medley team in Division 5 when the format was popular last year but it proved hard to get men willing to turn out for these matches, and the large player pool also meant it was difficult to get consistency in partnerships.  The club needs to decide whether it can realistically field two competitive Medley teams when matches are played at the weekend.

The Ladies Bucks Shield 2 pair team in Division 6 was minus three of the strongest ladies who elected to play Medley 1 matches and finished 7th out of 8 teams.  There appears to be sufficient interest to field two ladies 2-pair Bucks Shield teams next summer and this would be possible if the 2nd Medley team was dropped.

Men’s Bucks Shield 2 pair team finished 3rd in Division 8 and should remain there for summer 2020.

The winter 2019/20 leagues begin shortly and we have some new players and sufficient interest to re-introduce a 3rd ladies team.  Things look promising for the future with younger players now competitive for places in the Ladies 2nd and 3rd plus Men’s 2 teams.

As usual if you are reading this and would like to get involved in team tennis in a small village club do get in touch with the team captains listed on the website.

Pamela Reid- Ladies Captain

28 September 2019