CI tennis teams head to Winter County Cup
THEIR biggest test ever awaits this weekend, but Rob West is confident it is one that a strong Channel Islands men's team can pull through.
An eight-person team – comprising three Guernsey players and five from Jersey – are making the trip to Welwyn Garden City in Hertfordshire for the annual Aegon Winter County Cup weekend.
After promotions in two successive years lifting them into an all-time high of Division Four, it is truly a step into the unknown for the CI's best male players.
But as they prepare to face Buckinghamshire, Staffordshire and North Wales in the four-team round-robin that starts tomorrow, West believes it is a squad more than ready for the challenge.
West, Patrick Ogier and youngster Jonty Carnachan are the Sarnian trio, while their quintet of Caesarean team-mates are headed by Stuart Parker, who has been making an impact on the singles circuit in France.
'It is a really strong squad that we are taking across and I would say it is slightly stronger than the squad we had when we got promoted from Division Five last year,' said West.
Meanwhile, the CI women's team travel to Wrexham for their own Division Six campaign in which they will take on North Wales, Oxfordshire and Cumbria.
'We have a very young squad, with four of our six players being under-16s, so this should be a good experience for them and they will learn plenty,' said CI women's team manager Richard Smeed.
'Hopefully we can get a few wins and cement our place in this division.'
More in Thursdays Guernsey Press.
