The Isle of Man 45-and-over tennis team opened their 2023 campaign with a home fixture against Northamptonshire at Douglas Tennis Club the weekend before last.

The team of four - made up of captain Neil Ronan, Rob Comber, Nerijus Gricevicius and Jos Woolford – faced what looked like on paper like a really tough afternoon playing a Northamptonshire side that had won their opening fixture 3-2 against Derbyshire.

At first singles, Comber got the team off to the perfect start with an impressive win in two sets against Christian Rostlund 6-4, 6-2.

Gricevicius was up against Paul White at second singles but couldn’t quite match Comber’s win. He eventually lost in a third-set champions tie-break 11-9, having lost the first set 3-6 and winning the second 6-3.

In the first of the three doubles, Woolford and Ronan took on the very tricky and often unpredictable pairing of Giuliano Labban and Ian Nicholas.

After losing the first set 4-6 and going down 2-5 in the second, the Isle of Man pair nearly turned it around coming back to level at 6-6 but they lost in the tie-break 5-7.

Therefore, it was all to play for in the two remaining doubles.

In the first, Woolford and Ronan played some really good tennis and simply did not give the Northamptonshire pairing of Rostlund and White any time to get going, winning the first set 6-4 and running away with the second 6-1.

Gricevicus and Comber then looked to be heading for a similar result, winning the first set 6-4 and then going 5-1 up in the second.

But the Northamptonshire partnership of Labban and Nicholas refused to give up and the match was soon into a tie-break second set.

Gricevicus and Comber held their nerve, winning 7-5 in the tie-break to give the Isle of Man a narrow 3-2 victory.

The Isle of Man team finish their 45 and over campaign with a trip to Derbyshire and Lincolnshire at the start of September.

Shropshire were to be the remaining team in the group but unfortunately they have withdrawn from the competition.

l The team would like to thank sponsor Sean Oates of ICR Retail Systems for his valuable support for the second year in succession.