Special Feature - German Team Tennis

Contributor - Jeremy Woods

Heathrow Terminal 5 on a Friday evening between May and August is a good place to meet up with many VLTC of GB members. Why? Because they are off to Germany to play team tennis.

With six players in a team, numbered off 1-6 in order of ranking, there is an opportunity to play highly competitive singles and doubles against excellent opposition. First matches on are the singles, with numbers 2, 4 and 6 playing, followed by 1, 3 and 5 and then the doubles, giving a final result out of 9.

Each team is allowed to play two overseas players, so it is an opportunity to meet up with players from all over Europe and sometimes further afield.

Typically, fixtures are played at beautiful old red claycourt clubs with a wealth of history and support from the local community who often turn out in numbers unfamiliar to us in Britain, in order to give support to their team. After the matches, the host team provide a substantial meal, enhanced by loud conversation, much laughter and a lot of pils!

The VLTC of GB are particularly proud of their association with one club in the Ruhr region of Western Germany, Tennisclub Grün-Weiß Herne. This nine court club boasts the VLTC’s only honorary German member and a club trainer who is British, having lived in Germany for over 30 years. As a result, the club has a total of nine VLTC members playing across the various age groups. This English connection, led to a VLTC team visting Herne in 2009 and a return visit from the Germans to compete in Cambridge in 2010.

This photograph identifies members Deiter Dressler (1st from left) John Barrett (5th from left) Donald Adams (8th from left) and Jeremy Woods (10th from left) in front of the Herne clubhouse.

With a competitive veterans structure that includes most age ranges, it is easy to see why German team tennis is so popular with many British players.