JEM Tennis keep winter title chances alive with battling winning draw against Canoe Lake

Shaun de Jong and Tom Wotjack were JEM's top pair as they recorded a double.

Although the second pair of Andy Long and Mark Turl lost both their rubbers, they took a set off Lake’s Stuart Gray and Terry

Lawrence which was enough to secure them the additional winning draw point.

JEM’s men's 2nd team were also in action, being forced to play 11 sets in their Division Two match before

they overcame Avenue 2.

That came courtesy of two match tie-break wins.

In Division Three, newcomers Portsmouth Tennis Centre allowed Ryde Lawn 3rds just six games in a crushing victory.

Meanwhile, in Division Four Rowlands Castle could only muster 15 games as they suffered a 4-0 defeat to Avenue 4.

Chichester 2nds dropped their first rubber of the season, going down to Fishbourne 2nds.

The ladies’ fixtures were once again hit by bad weather, but Lee 3rds and Canoe Lake managed to beat the rain.

It was Lee who took the the winning draw points by a single game, 36-35.

The ladies from Wickham and JEM Tennis were not quite so fortunate.

They were halfway through the reverse rubbers when they were forced to abandon play owing to the weather.

But by that stage JEM had taken the opening rubbers and led 2-0 and as a result were awarded the points. Down in Division One, Stubbington kept their promotion hopes alive with a 3-1 victory over Lee 4ths.

Elaine Reed and Karen McCullough won both their rubbers, backed up by Jenny Nicholson and Jean Carty who beat Lee’s top pair.

The final ladies match saw Sarisbury Green edge past Southsea with a 3-1 victory.

Gwen Isaacs and Alison Tims took both rubbers for Sarisbury.

Warsash first team laid down a marker in mixed division one with a hard-fought 3-1 victory over Ryde Lawn 1 in a topsy-turvy match.

Both teams saw their second pairs beat the first pairs to share the opening round of rubbers.

Warsash then went on to win both the reverse match ups.

In mixed division two, Ventnor 2nds won match tie-breaks in both the opening rubbers to open up a 2-0 advantage and they might have been expecting to cruise to victory.

But back came Avenue and it needed a final rubber win for Maureen Parker and High Idle to clinch the 3-1 overall win for Ventnor.

In Division Four, there were 4-0 victories for Chichester 2 (against Active Academy) and Carlton Green 2nds (over Alverstoke)

Meanwhile, Warsash and Wickham shared the rubbers 2-2 in their meeting.

But it was Wickham who took the winning draw points thanks to the set that Yvonne Richardson and Joe Ettridge took off Karen Harrison and Nigel Barton.

A full programme of midweek matches saw Chichester ladies avenge their defeat by Avenue first team in their recent summer league fixture.

Two tie-break victories for Chichester in their opening two rubbers set the scene and they went on to claim the points by a convincing margin of four rubbers to one.

Ryde Lawn first team claimed their first success of the winter, also by a 4-0 scoreline, against Fishbourne.

Canoe Lake broke their run of 2-2 scores to defeat Fishbourne 3-1.

In Division Two, Avenue edged past Rowlands Castle thanks to a final rubber match tie-break win while Lee claimed the points against Ryde Lawn 2nds by a 3-1 margin.

Avenue’s mixed first team took on David Lloyd West End first team and shared the rubbers 2-2.

But the winning draw points went to Avenue as they took six sets to their opponents four.

The Division Two match between Wellow and Ryde Lawn 2nds was also drawn.

Wellow won five sets to the four picked up by Lawn.

There was no countback required for Canoe Lake in their Division Three match against Lee.

They won by a comfortable 4-0 margin.

Canoe Lake’s men rounded of the results with a straightforward win against Fishbourne.