Mixed response to starting Portsmouth & District Winter Tennis League in October

Here, Alan Best - who has written league reports for The News for many years - gives an update on the state of his sport.

He writes ...

‘Tennis players were some of the first to benefit from the gradual release of the government’s Covid

lockdown. As a result, social tennis has flourished, with court bookings booming and with many clubs

seeing their first increase in membership for many years.

‘And now the government have announced that competitive amateur sport can resume, subject to

guidelines to be defined by the sport’s controlling body.

So does that mean that the Portsmouth Leagues players can look forward to the resumption of their competition in the near future?

The traditional summer season, which runs from 1 April to 31 August, was suspended in late March, as instructed by the authorities, and finally abandoned in June when with over 75 per cent of the fixtures having already having been lost, there was no prospect of being able to catch up on the backlog.

Following that abandonment, clubs were invited to give their views about the possibility of starting a normal winter season in October, should the authorities allow it.

The response was very mixed.

Some (but very few) were keen to start playing again as soon as possible, but the majority were in favour of holding fire until the overall position with regard to the virus became clearer.

Six weeks later the lockdown has been released further and LTA have drawn up the guidelines to be

followed if league tennis is to resume.

While not particularly onerous for clubs with full time staff, most of the clubs in the league are run by volunteers and some clubs would find it difficult to adhere strictly to these guidelines.

And a straw poll of a selection of clubs suggests that there are a number of other obstacles to be overcome before any sort of normal competition can return.

A major consideration is that a considerable number of league players, particularly those in the lower

divisions, are in the more vulnerable, senior player category.

A number of clubs have reported that quite a few of these older players have not yet returned to regular play, with those who have relatives or friends who have been affected by the virus being particularly cautious.

A secondary issue is that of travel. Current government guidelines are to avoid travelling in a car with

people not in your household where possible.

To comply with this recommendation, all four players in team might be expected to travel to an away match in their own car. While this may not be a problem for some matches, the league covers teams as far away as Warsash and Chichester, and individual travel places a not insignificant cost increase on the travelling team.

And if the players do travel in one car, then they will increase the risk, however small, of passing on an infection.

Furthermore, the Portsmouth League is probably unique in that some 25 per cent of its matches involve “overseas” travel to the Isle of Wight.

The island has remained pretty much free of infection during the crisis and the indications are that a

number of team players would be very reluctant to travel, or even welcome visitors, for the time being.

So, does this mean no competitive tennis over the winter? Maybe, maybe not is the only answer at the moment.

What is certain is that the normal 120+ team competition, with over 600 fixtures, will not operate this winter.

But the league committee are considering a number of options with the aim of resuming competitive team tennis as soon as is practicably possible.’