Nottinghamshire won their fourth straight County Championships veterans’ premier division but were made to work really hard this season as they came from third after the first weekend to overtake Yorkshire in the last match in an exciting finale to the season played at Draycott and Long Eaton TTC over last weekend.
It was Kent who led the division after the first weekend on a maximum six points, which was one point ahead of Yorkshire and two ahead of reigning champions Nottinghamshire by virtue of beating Notts over the first weekend.
All three leading counties won their first matches but things began to change in the second round of matches when Yorkshire scored an 8-2 victory over Kent as they leapfrogged their Southern rivals. With Notts winning their second match, such was their superiority on sets that Kent had now dropped to third place.
All counties won their first fixtures on Sunday morning and the destination of the title was up for grabs in the last round of fixtures with Notts facing Yorkshire with Notts needing a win and Yorkshire a draw to take the title.
As a small sub plot Kent were out of the reckoning for the title as it was going to be either of their rivals who took the title but they still could finish runners-up with a win over Berkshire in their last match.
Notts raced away to a quick 5-0 lead against Yorkshire and despite a women’s singles win by Janet Adams against Sarah Short, this only held off the inevitable and Notts completed a 7-3 victory to secure the title.
Kent against Berkshire was proving to be a thriller in its own right and the victory for Kent never came and with Berkshire securing a 6-4 win the Royal county also overtook Kent to take third spot.
Hertfordshire have had a very troubled season injury wise and lost Jimmy Walsh during the first weekend and then lost Sara Williams through injury during their opening match of this weekend so, losing three sets per match for the remainder of the weekend due to no woman player, it was understandable why they completed the season at the foot of the table with no points
They are to be joined in relegation by newcomers Worcestershire who ended the season on three points as, in their last match they met Leicestershire needing to win while Leicestershire required a draw. And a draw it was as Leicestershire retained their premier status.
Final league table (subject to administrator verification):
Nottinghamshire 7 6 0 1 54 16 12
Yorkshire 7 5 1 1 43 27 11
Berkshire 7 4 2 1 41 29 10
Kent 7 5 0 2 38 32 10
Sussex 7 2 2 3 35 35 6
Leicestershire 7 1 2 4 29 41 4
Worcestershire 7 1 1 5 23 47 3
Hertfordshire 7 0 0 7 17 53 0