Write up from St Ives….
FIRST MATCH ON OUR NEW COURTS
Team tennis returned to St Ives for the first time for six months with the first match on our new synthetic clay courts.
With league tennis not due to resume until October, we invited local rivals Penzance to play a men’s friendly to mark the unveiling of the new surface.
The visitors ran out 3-1 winners and thoroughly enjoyed being the first “guests” since St Ives became the only club in Cornwall to have artificial clay courts.
Team captain James Brown and Gavan Goulder picked up the St Ives’ victory after being narrowly denied an opening win as Penzance pair Sam Newborn and Erik Dirkx took the deciding champions tie-break before going on to clinch their second win of the afternoon.
It was the first match for either club since lockdown forced the 2019-20 Cornwall Winter League to be prematurely curtailed in March.
Coronavirus restrictions meant that Tennis Cornwall also had to cancel the entire Summer League season but they are planning to resume matches with the start of the 2020-21 Winter League season next month.
Sorry that coronavirus restrictions prevented us from announcing the match in advance and from trying to attract a few spectators for an opening “party”.
