Lee-sy does it! Lee on the Solent’s Portsmouth Winter Tennis League success story

Their top three ladies teams were all in action, and all were victorious.

The 1sts travelled to Warsash and shared the opening round of rubbers, with just two games separating the teams on countback. But the reverse rubbers saw Lee take total control, losing just two games in four sets, enabling them to record a 3-1 win.

The 2nd’s match was much more of a contest. Hosting Chichester 2nds, the opening rubbers were once again shared, but in the reverse rubbers Lee were just too experienced for the visitors, who fielded two league debutants.

The 3rd team also played at home, winning all four rubbers against Avenue 4ths, the only blemish on their scorecard being when Deanna Tarrant and Sarah Pearce lost the second set against Claire Bownass and Heulwen Newman. But they soon recovered to win the match tie break.

Lee’s mixed 2nds team continued the successful run with another win, this time against Warsash 2nds. The latter’s Karen Kirwan and Doug Junks took a set off each of Lee’s pairs, but couldn’t follow up by winning the match tie breaks as Lee won 4-0.

That completed Lee’s weekend success story, but not to be left out their men’s midweek masters defied the predictions of heavy rain all day on Wednesday to thrash Warsash 2nds for the loss of just 16 games.

CourtX were another club who made the most of the fine weather. Their first and second men’s teams both recorded comfortable wins, the 1sts winning all four rubbers against Ryde Lawn without losing a set. The 2nds shared the opening rubbers with Avenue 2nds, but won both the reverse rubbers for a 3-1 win.

Chichester men’s 2nds were pushed all the way by Warsash 2nds, sharing the rubbers 2-2 but claiming the winning draw points thanks to the fact their second pair, Tony Walsh and Sivakumar Pillai, won a set in their losing rubber against Warsash’s top pair, Miles Quinn and Louis Latham.

Southsea started their ladies division 5 match against Alverstoke in fine style, Helen Shelton and Christina Georgiou beating Tracey Lazenby and Elaine Hannigan in straight sets. But Alverstoke fought back to take the next three rubbers, and with it the match.

The youngsters from Active Academy proved to be much too strong for CourtX in mixed division 2, the latter’s sole success being a single set won by Sam Jones and Lynn Candlish.

In the same division, Avenue 2nds edged past Chichester thanks to two match tie break wins for their second pair, Phil Broad and Helen Watson.

In an Isle of Wight derby, Ventnor’s top pair, Linda Jones and Hugh Idle, won all four sets played for the loss of just three games. But Ryde Mead won both the other rubbers, after match tie breaks, to claim a point for their efforts.

Mixed division 3 saw wins for Alverstoke (3-1 against Avenue 3rds) and Southsea (3-1 against Abshot), while in division 4 Rowlands Castle travelled to Warsash and returned home with all three points thanks to a double for Jane and Peter Mellor, backed up by a win for Sue Palmer and John Marenghi.

Other division 4 matches saw Lee suffer their only defeat of the week, their mixed 3rds sharing the rubbers with Wickham but losing out 5-4 on sets .

Fishbourne opened their season with an impressive 4-0 win over Southsea 2.

Remarkably, on a day of almost continual rain, two midweek masters’ matches were completed on Wednesday.

The Lee men’s match is referred to above, but praise also to Rowlands Castle and Warsash 2nds mixed teams, who braved the weather to share the rubbers 2-2. The match was decided by a single game in Warsash’s favour.