Chichester claim surprise result against Avenue in opening round of Portsmouth Winter Tennis League men’s fixtures

But the other match in that division produced something of a surprise result when newly-promoted Chichester took on Avenue 1sts on their own courts – and edged a very tight contest.

They claimed a winning draw, having drawn the rubbers 2-2 but won five sets to Avenue’s four.

The opening rubbers were shared, but the match turned when the visitors’ Joe Glover and Nigel Jones reversed a first set defeat against James Rosenthal and Christophe Hardy by taking the second set 6-2.

The latter pair went on to win the match tie break, and with it the rubber, but Jimmy Marks and Charlie Guimaraen backed up their top pair by beating Avenue’s Rowan Smithson and Jordan Goff to seal the win.

The start of the new winter season has been the proverbial damp squib, with Sunday’s programme being completely washed out. But there was plenty of action on Saturday, including one key match which had to be played to complete the Summer League Ladies Division 3 competition.

Three other Summer League divisions were decided off court, Ventnor and Active Academy being unable to complete their outstanding matches.

The opening rubbers in the men’s Division 3 match between Southsea and Seacourt were shared, although unusually the nominated second pairs beat the first pairs in both rubbers. But Seacourt dominated the reverse rubbers to take the match 3-1.

One division down, Warsash men’s 3rds completed a good day for the club when they claimed the winning draw points at Alverstoke.

The home team’s top pair, Tony Norish and Chris Titterington, enjoyed a good day, winning both their rubbers, although they needed three sets in both cases.

Toby Woodford and James Westerby were less fortunate, going down in both runners with the result that, although the rubbers were shred, the visitors won six sets to the hosts’ four.

The top ladies match of the day was between two CourtX teams, nominally called 1sts and 2nds. But the number does not reflect the standard of the players involved, rather the order in which those players joined the club.

And so, while in normal circumstances it might be quite unusual for a 2nd team to beat a 1st, in this case it wasn’t. Bur it still didn’t stop CourtX 2nds claiming bragging rights!

Lynn Candlish and Amanda Freeman were the key players for CX 1sts, winning both their rubbers. The 2nds won the other two rubbers and, when the games were added up, the 2nds banked the winning draw by 33 points to 32.

No such mathematics were needed in the Ladies Division 4 match between Rowlands Castle and Avenue 3rds. In fact, the number of games won by the latter could, literally, be added up on the fingers of one hand!

In the same division Stubbington, fresh from their success in winning their division in the Summer League, carried on their good form by overcoming Warsash 3rds 3-1. A further division down, Chichester 3rds started their season in style with a 4-0 win over Abshot CC, albeit it that Abshot lost two match tie breaks which, had they gone the other way, would have earned them a point.

The men’s midweek masters looks like being an interesting division this season with Swanmore and Avenue laying down early markers, the former with a 4-0 over Fishbourne, the latter with an almost equally impressive 3-1 victory against Wellow.

The final match saw Chichester and CourtX fight out a 2-2 draw, with the sets also shared equally. But Nigel Marks and Simon Toft demolished Martyn Cox and Robin Ellison in the final rubber, the 11-game difference between the pairs enabling Chichester to claim the winning draw points.