Lucas Cup - Nelson vs Marlborough - Sunday 8th November 2026

After a terrible day of rain on Saturday, the skies turned blue again just in time for our Lucas Cup Fixture against Marlborough. Hosted at Richmond Tennis Club, the team arrived ready to try and retain the cup for another year!

Our Team line up below had experienced some late changes in the women, and some ranking changes in the week leading up to the fixture but everyone arrived ready to play the best of the Marlborough players.

We started with the Doubles matches, with Oscar and Simon pairing together and Alejandro and Todd. Oscar and Simon took the first set 7-5 and then followed on strongly with a 6-1 second set. Alejandro and Todd found themselves at one set all and took the tie break 10-5. Ruth and Rita paired up in the women's doubles taking on Marlborough's strongest two women. They lost the first set, and challenged the second strongly, but Marlborough took the second 6-4. Ivy and Robyn took the first set 6-0 and then fought hard in the second to take it out 7-5.

This was a great start leading the fixture 3-1 going into the singles games where Steve came in to play instead of Todd. There were a few nerves going in to the Singles games with many players saying they hadn't played much singles recently, some even since the same fixture a year ago, but everyone played briliantly, and after several close battles Nelson won 6 out of the 8 singles matches. In the last round of the Mixed Doubles, Jen played instead of Ruth and paired up with her normal club team mate Oscar. The Mixed Doubles followed the success of the day with Nelson taking 3 of the 4 matches and securing the Lucas Cup fixture winning 12-4. 

It was a friendly, competitive fixture with some brilliant tennis to watch. These players all did the Nelson Region proud, and we keep the Cup and the fixture in Nelson for another year! Well done team. 

You can find the full results on Matchpoint HERE.