Jamie's blog

27 July, 2009 | 21:07

Hey guys!

Quite a lot has gone on since my last blog so another update is more than required!

I made a fleeting visit to Poland and then was in Eastbourne the following morning for some county week action trying to help the North of Scotland stay in group 1, followed by a trip to Umag, Croatia.

I arrived back from Poland late on Tuesday night, changed over some clothes, had a few hours sleep and was up at 730am to drive down to Eastbourne with andy to play.  I have played for the North on 4 previous occasions, but never since we got to group 1 and we were gonna get relegated for sure this year had I not turned up (even though I didn't win all my matches). We even managed to lose on the day that Andy played which was quite something but we won on Thursday and Friday to stay up.

I really enjoyed playing this year as I don't get to see the guys on our team so often and we always have a good time whenever we catch up - it made a nice change from a regular tournament week.

The final day we needed to beat Yorkshire in a relegation battle to stay up.  We were 4-2 down going into last round needing to win all 3 matches to stay up...weather was rubbish in the morning so matches were sets up to 4 and deciding tie break at 1 set all...

I played with Mike Fleming who's record at division 1 was 0 wins and 24 losses and we managed to fight back from 9-6 down in the tie break to win 5 points in a row and win!!

Then in the last match of the tourney - with everyone watching - Euan Mcginn and Owen Hadden (34 county weeks between them) came back from 9-5 down to win the tie break and keep the North up!!

We were going mad! What an effort from the guys to stay up! It was amazing to see those guys out there and winning the final rubber as they had done so much for county tennis in the North over the last 15 years or so.

I left pretty much straight away as I was getting a ride back to London cuz I was flying out the following day to Venice and then a 2hr drive to Umag. 

Umag is a pretty fun tournament it seems...lots of holidaymakers come for the week around the tennis tournament and seem to have a good time. It's is by the sea and they have a nice lake as well where people go to swim and sunbathe. I can't imagine anything else happening in Umag except for this one week of the year.

We are up against the Argentine combo of Sergio Roitman and Brian Dabul which should be a tough match for us, but we are looking forward to it.

We won't play until Wednesday evening as matches start at 4pm most days because of the heat.

Speak soon

Jamie