Rowlands Castle and Ryde Lawn play out dramatic tie… Canoe Lake seconds soaring after 3-1 win against Wickham

The game took place in ladies’ division three. The opening rubbers were shared, with Castle taking a one game advantage. Castle’s Jane Whitaker and Liz Marenghi always looked likely to back up their earlier rubber win with another, but Michele Harpur and Dreen Chestnutt went down 6-1 in the first set and then 4-1 in the second, and a Ryde win on games looked inevitable, writes Alan Best.

But the Castle pair recovered and won just enough games to level the score overall and force the tie.

Another close encounter was in the midweek mixed masters competition, when Wellow made the long trip to Fishbourne to share the rubbers 2-2 and the sets 4-4. It was decided by just a single game on countback, the eight games won by Fishbourne’s Tamsin Saunders and Martin Davies in their mixed rubber proving to be critical.

There was another very close match between Warsash seconds and Ryde Lawn seconds in men’s division two. Warsash took both the opening rubbers and looked set fair for victory. But the island visitors fought back in the reverse rubbers, winning both, though they needed three sets to do so. That left the rubbers tied at 2-2. But Warsash had secured six sets overall so secured the winning draw points on countback.

And perhaps the most surprising result of the week was the match between Ryde Lawn first team and second team in the midweek masters league. The second team’s Tom Carter and Zyreida Denning surprised the first team top pair, Carrie Bateman and Ron Sleep, with victory in the third set match tie break. Carter went on to back up that victory with another win in the men’s v men rubber, with partner Karl Bateman. The first team’s blushes were spared when they came out on top 6-5 but they were certainly given a scare.

Avenue’s second and third men’s teams were both in action, but with differing fortunes. The second team strolled past Ryde Mead for a 3-1 win. Jordan Goff and Neil Crawford recorded a double rubber win but the third team went down to Fishbourne 3-1.

In ladies’ division one Ryde Mead eased by Lee seconds 3-1 and Ryde Lawn beat Avenue seconds by the same score. Other ladies matches saw Canoe Lake seconds enhance their growing reputation with a 3-1 win over Wickham. Wendy Evans and Fi Goode won both their rubbers and they were backed up by Alison Wakelin and Lynn Candlish who beat Wickham’s second pair.