Women's Senior Cheshire Shield

The opening weekend of November saw the first of the senior Cheshire Shield events taking place at David Lloyd Cheshire Oaks, who stepped up late in the day to kindly offer the use of their courts due to a late cancellation at the original venue!

This year's women's event had 5 teams entering (an increase 25% on the previous 3 years!) and saw an array of new players joining the teams.

The tournament started with a group round robin stage with all teams playing each other once. The top 2 teams after all matches had been played would then play a final to determine who takes home the shield this year.

One of the opening matches of the day saw last year's finalists, David Lloyd Cheshire Oaks and Lymm, going head to head in an extremely long opening match with both pairs going close to the 1 hour mark for a single set. This definitely set the tone for the day, which continued to produce a lot of long, close matches and some thoroughly enjoyable tennis.

After a lengthy group stage, The final was set which again featured last year's finalists going against each other but this time playing a full FAST4 match in each rubber.

Despite both matches going close to the hour and a quarter mark, the tournament result was still unknown with both teams claiming a rubber each meaning that a 10 point tie break was to be played with a player from each pair, A case of deja vu as this was the same scenario 12 months ago to the day!!

Once again, DL Cheshire Oaks came out on top after a thrilling 22 point tie break lasting 20 minutes and eventually finishing 12-10 in their favour and ensuring that they retain the shield for at least another year! Well played to both DL Cheshire Oaks and runners up, Lymm, for providing such a captivating final.

The five clubs this year were;

• Bramhall Lane LTC

• David Lloyd Cheshire Oaks

• Heswall LTC

• Hoylake LTC

• Lymm LTC

Congratulations to DL Cheshire Oaks, Our Women's Senior Cheshire Shield winners 2026;

• Carmen Dowd

• Julia Fidler

• Aafke Ninteman

• Sally Proudlove

This year's event was officiated by Tom Brown and a huge amount of thanks must go to David Lloyd Cheshire Oaks for providing their courts at such short notice and ensuring the event still went ahead as planned.