Seacourt suffer thrilling loss to Chichester – Portsmouth Winter Tennis League round-up

CourtX 3 v JEM Tennis (from left): Robin Ellison, Richard Hebbes, Jake Somerton. Rob Chapman, Simon Troke, Martyn Cox, Peter Wilkes, Christophe Rident

Except for the match between Chichester ladies 3rds and Denmead, where the former recorded a 3-1 success, writes ALAN BEST.

Chichester men’s 2nds followed up the ladies’ success in a thrilling encounter with Seacourt. The opening rubbers were shared, but Seacourt claimed a slight advantage when Graham Cottle and Vince Venus took a set off Callum Budd and Paul Sheen.

Budd and Sheen then accounted for Hugh Latham and Rich Perkins in straight sets, leaving the match decided by the final rubber. Cottle and Venus won it, after a match tie break, but Chichester took the winning draw points 36-34 on games.

Active men (from left): Nick Dempsey, Don Iro, Matt Grigg and Jon Plaw

There was another close encounter between CourtX 3rds and JEM Tennis. The opening rubbers were again shared, but Simon Troke and Robin Ellison won a set in their losing rubber to give CourtX the advantage.

The reverse rubbers were also shared, both in straight sets, leaving CourtX as winners of the extra point 5-4 on sets countback.

The mixed doubles match between Avenue and Warsash in Division 1 saw both teams’ top pairs crush the respective second strings. Warsash’s PG Udal and Martin Wilkinson then edged past Viola Masona and Mark Lance before the final high-quality rubber in which Lauren Howard and Ian Udal had to be at their very best to overcome Natalie Denby and James Rosenthal.

Active Academy have entered teams in the men’s and ladies’ competitions for the first time, and are beginning to make their presence felt.

Active Ladies (from left): Sophie Grist, Eva Lakey, Erin Perry and Daisy Harris

The men recorded their second successive win, 3-1 against Southsea, while the ladies scored a 4-0 win over Lee 3rds to continue to press their promotion claim.

Ryde Lawn’s midweek teams have had a busy seven days, with their 1st mixed team playing two matches. With home advantage they beat CourtX, for the loss of just 12 games, but had to fight much harder for the points at Lee.

Jon Brown and Helen Peak took the top mixed rubber after winning the second set on a tie break.

Tie breaks featured in the second mixed rubber as well, Richard Clevely and Jessica Mead needing one to win the first set before Trevor Grant and Sarah Pearse just avoided another by taking the second set 7-5.

That meant a match tie break was needed to decide the rubber, with the experience of Clevely to the fore as Ryde edged home.

Lee clinched the all-ladies’ rubber but Clevely and Brown were just too strong in the men’s rubber, allowing Ryde to maintain their unbeaten record.

Lee had played Ryde’s mixed masters 2nds just a few days earlier, though with a completely different set of players.

Tie breaks were again a key feature, with both Lee’s mixed pairs winning their rubbers after match tie breaks and Ryde taking the all-ladies’ rubber in a similar fashion.

Lee’s men won their rubber in straight sets, giving them an overall 3-1 success.

Other midweek action saw Carlton Green overcome Southsea 4-0 in Mixed 2, Avenue beat Ryde Lawn 1 by the same score in Ladies 1, while Avenue’s men beat Warsash 2nds 3-1 - the crucial win coming when Adrian Drummond and Andy Perkins took the match tie break to beat Syd Quinn and John Bassett.

Glethorn were another team to fit two matches into a week, beating Warsash 1sts 3-1 but crashing 4-0 to CourtX.