Congratulations to the entire Isle of Man Team for its outstanding performance at the NatWest Island Games XVII, this year held on the Swedish island of Gotland.

The Isle of Man Tennis Team enjoyed a particularly successful week winning 2 gold medals, 1 silver medal and 1 bronze medal. Thomas Miller Investment was proud to again sponsor the Tennis Team’s kit. TMI’s very own Karen Faragher, Assistant Portfolio Manager, has now taken part in 14 Island Games winning 4 gold, 4 silver and 13 bronze medals. Laura Feely has been to four Games and she now has 3 gold, 2 silver and 3 bronze medals. It was a first medal for Sean Drewry, whilst the remaining members of the Women’s Team, Katie Harris, Elena and Hannah Snidal added to the bronze medals they have previously won in the Team event.

The Games started with the Men’s and Women’s Tennis Team events. The Men’s team played well winning their first match against the Isle of Wight with Singles wins for Sean Drewry and Mark Chinn but then came up against a strong Bermuda team with both Drewry and Chinn losing out in two close sets. The Women’s team played against Guernsey in the semi-final coming through 2-0 with Singles wins for Laura Feely and Karen Faragher to set up a final clash with Menorca. The Team made a change to the Singles line-up with Katie Harris coming in to replace Faragher. Feely was first on court and despite battling hard lost out in two sets to the Menorca number one. Harris then took to the court and won the first set before narrowly losing the second to take the match into a deciding tie-break which she duly won to level the tie at 1-1 and ensure the match would be decided on the Doubles. Faragher and Feely, who had won the gold medal in the Women’s Doubles at 2015’s Games in Jersey, took to the court for the Manx Team but struggled for consistency in the first set to go one set down. The second set was hard fought with no breaks of serve until the tenth game when the Manx pair broke the Menorcan’s serve to take the set and send the match into a deciding tie-break. This turned out to be a thriller with Faragher and Feely racing into a 9-4 lead before finally winning the match 11-9 and securing the Isle of Man’s first ever team gold medal in the tennis event.

Further success followed in the individual events, with Laura Feely getting to the final of the Women’s Singles and earning a silver medal, whilst in the Mixed Doubles Karen Faragher teamed up with Sean Drewry to take bronze. In what was the final event of the week for the Manx Team, Faragher and Feely again paired up in the Women’s Doubles and successfully defended their title from the previous Games to take the gold medal.

Team line up:
Back row: Marc Chinn, James Buxton, Tom Richards (Managing Director, TMI), Laura Feely, Katie Harris
Front row: Elena Snidal, Hannah Snidal, Sean Drewry, Karen Faragher (TMI), Daphne Snidal (Team Manager)
Missing: Ryan Chinn