Three of Yorkshire’s senior County Cup teams made it to this year’s national finals at Nottingham Tennis Centre, where captain Belinda Turnbull and the women’s O60s team came away with the title in double-quick time after a convincing win over Gloucestershire. Cath Davies and Gill Brook ran out 6-1 6-1 and 6-0 6-1 winners in the singles, with Belinda Turnbull and Susan Wandless sealing the victory with a 6-3 6-1 win in the first doubles.
NATIONAL CHAMPIONS: women’s O60s (LtoR) Susan Wandless, Wendy Stirke, Gill Brook, Cath Davies and captain Belinda Turnbull were crowned national champions at the seniors county cup finals weekend in Nottingham
For Becky Lee and the women’s O55s its was a mixture of pride and disappointment as the team finished 2-3 runners up to Surrey after completing a clean sweep with five wins out of five in the group stages to qualify for the finals.
In Nottingham, Gill Kilner put Yorkshire in front with a 6-2 6-3 win in the singles before Yvonne Burrage pulled it back to 1-1 by winning a deciding tiebreak in the singles against Becky Lee. Surrey then took two of the three singles to claim the title.
Having moved up this year to the O55s, it was doubly disappointing as the team were runners up last year where they represented Yorkshire in the O50s and again were beaten narrowly by Middlesex at the finals weekend in Southhampton. Karen Mitchell, president of Yorkshire Tennis & Padel and a regular member of the O55s team, was forced to watch from the sidelines due to injury, but said she was very proud of the team.
The men’s O75s – captained by Wilf Jessop and including Greg Pearson, John Andrews and David Whitelaw – faced arch rivals Kent for the third year in a row. Yorkshire came out on top in 2024 but were runners up last year, and were runners up again this year. A highly competitive match hinged on a deciding tiebreak in the second doubles which went 10-8 in favour of the Kent team.
It has been a strong year as a whole for Yorkshire’s senior tennis teams, with three teams winning promotion to the top flight for next season: as runners up in Group 2a, the women’s O40s gained promotion to Group 1 for next year, as did the men’s O55s, winning all five of their matches to finish top of Group 2a, and the men’s O65s who also topped Group 2b.
Karen Mitchell said: “Congratulations to all of the Yorkshire players competing in the Seniors County Cup in 2026. Great results all round culminating in the women’s O60s becoming national champions and the women’s O55s and men’sO75s as national runners Up. Seniors County Cup is an excellent opportunity to represent your county and be part of a team. All should be delighted with their season and for me, serving as both a tennis player and president of Yorkshire Tennis & Padel, I’m immensely proud of our achievements.”