The Isle of Man’s national men’s tennis team travelled to Hunstanton in Norfolk to once again compete in the LTA Summer County Doubles Event recently.

The squad consisted of Orry Farnworth, Nerijus Gricevicius, Jayden Go, Nick Reeder, Andrew Maxwell and captain Sean Drewry.

The weather was totally different to last year, not the wall-to-wall sunshine of 2022 but rain on a number of days, making it difficult for the organisers to get the matches played on the grass courts at Hunstanton recreation grounds.

Unfortunately, because of injuries and players withdrawing, the Isle of Man only had five players for the first day but the necessary six for the remainder of the week.

This meant that in the first match against Cornwall the Manx side had to concede three of the matches, the players trying hard to compete with a strong Cornwall team.

Farnworth and Drewry went closest to taking a win, narrowly losing to Oshi Leverton/Jacob Martin 3-6 6-4 7-10. Overall, a 9-0 win for Cornwall.

The second day proved equally tough but at least the Isle of Man was able to field a full team to take on Sussex. They played well, taking games in most of the matches, but Sussex were too strong and won 9-0.

On the third day against South of Scotland, the Manx team was getting more used to the grass courts and duly managed to win two matches, with Farnworth and Drewry defeating Jamie Martin/Gavin Picken 6-0 6-1 and Adam Clunie/Jed McMillan 6-3 7-5. Overall, South of Scotland were 7-2 winners.

On the final day against Bedfordshire, the matches were reduced to short sets. Again all players competed well but Bedfordshire won 7-2, with the two wins for the Isle of Man coming again from Farnworth and Drewry who defeated Callum Causey/Mark O’Keefe 4-3 4-2 and Jordan Gazard/Harry Mabbit 4-1 4-2.

Overall good performances from all the players with a great team spirit from everyone which has generated greater motivation to train for future events.