Sidmouth’s Sue Wiltshire was in team

EAST Devon Tennis Club Ladies’ Seniors Team, based at the Exmouth Tennis and Leisure Centre, won Silver Medal in the European Club Championships in Portugal last week.

The Exmouth team, including Sidmouth Tennis Club head coach Sue Wiltshire, and Exmouth Tennis and Leisure Centre Manager, Jo Louis, beat National Club Champions from Belgium and Netherlands before narrowly losing out against the Italian champions by two matches to one in the final.

The European Club Championships is an annual event and national club champions are invited by Tennis Europe to participate in this prestigious event, which included former Grand Slam Champion Francoise Durr (France competing in the Ladies’ Over-60 event) as well as former world top 20 players, Federation Cup Players and current seniors world champions.

Jo Louis said: “Our team worked really hard last year to become national champions, beating teams from six different clubs in Great Britain and to get the opportunity for The Tennis Centre to represent Great Britain was really exciting. We knew the competition was going to be tough, including many former professional players and we were delighted to win a silver medal (however, we would have preferred a gold!) for Exmouth. We only narrowly lost to the Italian national champions in the final.”

The team representing the tennis centre was Jo Louis, Rachel Apsey, Sue Wiltshire and Jackie Nesbitt, and the girls are currently aiming to be invited to represent Great Britain next year. First though, they have a National Semi-final against East Gloucester to win at The Exmouth Tennis and Leisure Centre this coming Sunday (October 3).

Louis said: “This semi-final will be a tough match for us and we will have to play well to win.”