Warsash maintain stunning post-lockdown form in Portsmouth Winter Tennis League

They recorded a second successive win, defeating Avenue 1sts without dropping a set, writes ALAN BEST.

But Canoe Lake 1sts, drubbed 4-0 by Warsash the previous week, bounced back with a 3-1 victory over Lee 1sts.

Alfie Reynolds and Terry Lawrence notched up a double for Lake while Ollie Perigo and Stu Gray beat Lee’s top pair in their opening rubber before surprisingly losing to the second pair in the reverse rubber.

In the top Ladies division, Warsash thumped Canoe Lake 4-0 with Karen Downie and Jacky Gregory losing just six games in their two rubber wins.

Karen Claeys and Caroline Hardy fought hard to give Lake a consolation rubber but just failed to finish off their game with Joanne Kelly and Fran Burgess.

Sarisbury Green ladies celebrated the return of league tennis in style, with Pimm’s and G &T’s - after the match, of course.

Avenue 4ths may have wished they had started celebrating before they started play, as they only won a single rubber, with Bettina Harvey and Gwen Isaacs particularly dominant for Sarisbury.

Stubbington’s first pair, Sarah Pitkeathley and Sandra Turner, were also in fine form against Lee 4ths, losing only two games in four sets.

But Lee were able to win both rubbers against Stubbington’s second pair, albeit after match tie breaks, but Stubbington claimed the winning draw point by winning 6-4 on sets.

Mixed 1 saw Canoe Lake maintain their unbeaten record when they overcame Fishbourne 3-1 while Chichester edged past Avenue 2nds by five games, having shared the rubbers 2-2 and the sets 4-4.

Alverstoke 1sts recorded their second win in Mixed 2, beating Southsea 3-1, while Avenue 3rds eased past Wickham by the same score.

They were made to work hard for their win, however, with three of the four rubbers going to match tie breaks.

Indeed, three tie breaks were needed to settle the crucial rubber between Avenue’s Ella Tusler/ Paul Whittenham and Wickham’s Sue North/ Laurie Pickwood.

The latter pair won the first set on a normal seven-point tie break, the former taking the second set and setting up the 10-point match tie break.

But the momentum was with Tusler and Whittenham and they went on to win the final tie break, and with it the match.

The final match in mixed 3 was also settled on tie breaks, Rowland’s Castle’s Matt Bennett and Dawn Wears winning both their rubbers on match tie breaks.

That was enough to give Castle a point, but Warsash 3rds took the extra winning draw point as they won 6-4 on sets.

The sunny weather continued for the midweek games, Canoe Lake’s mixed team beating Wellow 3-1 while Warsash and Avenue shared rubbers and sets. Warsash claimed the extra point thanks to Karen Kirwan and Syd Quinn’s 6-0 6-1 win in the second mixed rubber.

There was another close match between Warsash and Avenue in the Men’s midweek league. Once again, the rubbers were shared 2-2, but Avenue’s Stewart Wiles and Adrian Drummond took a set off Michael Isaacs and John Basset and that gave them the winning draw 5-4 on sets.