Double 6-0, 6-0 victories for Portsmouth Tennis Centre brothers Wilson and Macca Neaves against Chichester

Warsash v Active. From left - Don Iro, Poppy Marsden, Sophie Grist, Matt Grigg, Helen Rawlins, Jan Grant, Stephen Carden-Noades, Nigel Kirkham

Chichester’s men hosted the Portsmouth Tennis Centre (PTC), playing on Chichester’s artificial clay courts – ideal for tennis on a hot, sunny day, but a far different surface to the indoor courts that PTC are used to, writes ALAN BEST.

But that did not worry the Neaves brothers, Macca and Wilson, who served up 6-0 6-0 defeats for both the Chichester pairs.

Chichester could not now win the match, but would claim a point if they could win the two rubbers against PTC’s second pair - and that is exactly what they did.

Wickham v Southsea (from left): Yvonne Richardson, Graham Allan, Maggie Allan, Emily Last, Linda Swingburne, Ian Farley, Andy Bowbrick.

Gerald Edwards and Hugo Frey lost the first set against John Taylor and Scott Pennyworth, but took the second one 7-5 and the match tie break 10-5.

In the mixed match between Wickham and Southsea, John Kemble and Emily Last won both their rubbers for Southsea. But Maggie and Graham Allan fought back with a win against Linda Swingburne and Andy Bowbrick and, with the latter pair having shared the sets with Ian Farley and Yvonne Richardson, the match result depended on the match tie break.

It went to Wickham, to level the score at two rubbers each, but Southsea took the winning draw point 5-4 on sets.

The third result was closer still. Fishbourne men’s 2nds and Carlton Green shared the rubbers 2-2, James Crossman and Dick Nicholson winning both for Fishbourne. And the sets were also shared 4-4, leaving the match to be decided on games countback.

In the first for this interrupted ‘restart’ season, the games came out equal as well, resulting in a rare tie - with one and a half points awarded to each team.

There was yet another close encounter in the ladies match between Avenue 4ths and Southsea. Here the respective first pairs beat the second strings quite comfortably, with Southsea gaining a one game advantage at halfway.

And with Helen Shelton and Sue Groves taking the first set in the 1s v 1s rubber, it looked like Southsea might be on their way to victory. But Jenny Ward and Linda Wainwright put their grass court experience to good use to take the second set and, although Shelton and Groves won the tie break, the rubbers won by the Avenue pair was enough to give them the winning draw points 5-4 on sets.

The first clear cut win came when Sarisbury Green defeated Lee 4ths, but even here they had to play 11 sets to seal victory.

The only rubber not to go to a tie break was the 2s v 2s, with Mary McCloughlin and Doreen Cadman easing past Sam Kerry and Jacqui Hyde in straight sets.

In the mixed divisions, Avenue 3rds defeated Rowlands Castle 3-1, while Active Academy drubbed Warsash 3rds 4-0

Runaway league leaders Canoe Lake consolidated their position with a 4-0 win over Lee in the midweek ladies masters league, while Lake’s mixed masters team beat Wellow 3-1.