Remarkably tight title race finishes – latest from the Portsmouth Tennis League

The Portsmouth Tennis League men’s top flight title was the first to be decided at the weekend. Avenue hosted Ryde Lawn knowing that to snatch the championship they needed a three-point win while at the same time hoping that Chichester could restrict Warsash to a draw at best.

But while James Rosenthal, David Moakes, Christophe Hardy and Cameron Clarke did their bit for Avenue, winning all four rubbers with ease, Warsash matched their scores every step of the way - their 4-0 win giving them the title by a single point.

Men’s 3, however, remains wide open. CourtX 3 edged past Ryde Mead thanks largely to their second pair, Jay Smith and George Newman, winning both their rubbers.

They now lie six points clear at the top of the table, but Chichester 2nds have games in hand and the title is not likely to be decided until the last match.

CourtX4, playing in Division 4, completed their season in style. Two 3-1 victories in successive weeks enabled them to surge into the second promotion place, level on points with Alverstoke but going up by virtue of winning just one more rubber over the whole season.

Ryde Mead 2nds and Lee 4ths both started their weekend matches, against Southsea and Ryde Lawn 3rds respectively, with hopes of claiming the second promotion slot in Division 5.

They both performed exactly as they might have hoped, winning all four rubbers. Remarkably, that led to an identical outcome to Division 4 - both teams level on points and Lee claiming the promotion place by a single rubber.

The only ladies match completed saw Abshott CC maintain their promotion hopes with a 3-1 over Denmead. A losing draw in their last match against Lee 4ths will be enough to clinch promotion.

Active Academy travelled to Ryde Lawn knowing that a losing draw point would be good enough to win Mixed Division 3. With the first round of rubbers shared, Active’s Rachel Heda and Martin Weston ensured the draw by beating Jon Brown and Suree Russell.

Sam Kingdom and Chris Hull almost took enough games in their losing rubbers to make it a winning draw, but the losing draw secured the title.

In a very tight Division 5, Chichester 2nds started their last match, against Avenue 5ths, in fifth place out of seven. But their 4-0 win leapfrogged them to the top of the table by a single point!

Avenue and Chichester wound up their midweek mixed masters seasons with convincing wins over Lee and CourtX respectively, but Ryde Lawn had wrapped up the title several weeks earlier.

Avenue’s second mixed team played two matches in a week to clear their backlog, winning both and finishing a highly respectable second in Division 2 behind runaway winners and league newcomers Swanmore.

Swanmore also won the ladies masters Division 2, but Avenue 2nds and Rowlands Castle are still fighting over the runners up slot.

The Havant team took a one point lead after a winning draw played on their grass courts, but the return match next week will be played on Castle’s tarmac courts, giving them the chance to reverse the result.