Portsmouth & District Tennis League: Life on the road not all that bad for JEM Tennis as they overcome all-conquering Active Academy

The club, who play in the Portsmouth & District League, are currently without a home where they can play league matches so, as a consequence, they are forced to give up advantage with all fixtures being played away.

Despite the setback of constantly being on the road, JEM are gradually acclimatising to this way of playing which was evident to see as they defeated previously all-conquering Active Academy's mixed team in Division 3.

JEM's second pair of Kevin and Suzanne Peat set their team on the way to victory by overcoming Active's top pair with club-mates Andy Long and Chanelle Martin backing up the surprise win.

Although Long and Martin lost their rubber to Rachel Heda and Jon Plow, it was only after a match tie-break and the set they claimed in defeat would prove crucial.

After the full set of four rubbers the scores were locked level at 2-2, yet JEM's five sets collected to Active Academy's four helped them claim the extra winning draw point.

JEM player Long was in action again the following day, this time turning out in a men's league match as they took on perennial league winners Warsash.

While the top JEM pairing of Shaun De Jongh and Zizheng Jin won both rubbers with relative ease, Long and partner Kurt La Count were unable to make inroads.

This meant that Warsash took the winning draw points after winning 35 games to JEM's 30 to keep them in the driving seat to secure another title.

Chichester made it six men's Division 2 wins on the spin as they demolished a strong-looking Fishbourne side.

Elsewhere in the same division, Ventnor's young team continue to show plenty of promise after they defeated Avenue 2nds for the loss of just nine games overall.

Avenue 3rds shared shared the rubbers with Ryde Mead in Division 1 (2-2) but missed out on a winning draw point on set countback.

In ladies Division 3, Ventnor were 3-1 winners in their meeting with Avenue 3rds while CourtX took the winning draw points on game countback after both the rubbers and sets won were shared as they took on Warsash 3rds.

Active Academy continue to set the pace in ladies Division 4 and made it six wins for the season after whitewashing Lee 3rds 4-0.

In the same division, Sarisbury Green and Stubbington inflicted whitewash wins of their own over Rowlands Castle 2nds and Avenue 4ths respectively.

The 4-0 scorelines continued to rack up with Southsea beating Chichester 2nds by the same margin in mixed Division 4.

There was better news for Chichester's midweek masters team, who claimed an impressive 3-1 victory over league leaders Ryde Lawn.

Rain and injury forced Rowlands Castle's meeting with Ryde Mead to be abandoned with no result while Southsea's match against Fishbourne was halted at the halfway stage although enough rubbers had been completed for Fishbourne to secure the winning draw points.

Avenue 2nds and Ryde Lawn 3rds played out the closest match of the week in midweek mixed masters Division 2.

Avenue took a three sets to two lead after the opening rubbers were shared leading into the second round.

Ryde's men took the second set 6-0 to take the momentum into the match tie-break, winning that, and gaining the advantage.

It all came down to the ladies versus ladies match and it was the islanders who secured a 3-1 win as Helen Peak and Emma Brown prevailed on a clay-court surface.