Chichester pip CourtX in remarkably tight Portsmouth Winter Tennis League encounter

Well, that’s what happened to Terry Lawrence, Amanda Freeman, Sue Price and Rob Ellison, the CourtX mixed team who took on Chichester in a Portsmouth Winter League Division 2 match.

The opening rubbers were shared, but both pairs needed to win two tie breaks to do so.

Price and Ellison edged past Catherine Hutchins and Simon Toft to put CourtX in command before Sean Savage and Ileana Melendez shared the first two sets against Lawrence and Freeman.

At this stage, the games were level at 43 each.

A tie break win for CourtX would give them a 3-1 win on rubbers, but victory for Savage and Melendez would level the rubbers at 2-2 – and, crucially, give them 44 games against 43. And win they did, to claim the winning draw points.

Chichester’s mixed 2nds had a rather less adventurous win over Lee 3rds in Mixed 4, while in the same division Wickham shared the rubbers with Rowlands Castle but claimed the winning draw points when Maggie Allan and Andy Hanney took a set off Matt Bennett and Sue Palmer.

All three of the ladies’ doubles matches completed ended with the rubbers shared.

In Division 2 CourtX 2 took the extra point against Ryde Lawn 2nds by 5 sets to 4, while in Division 4 Fishbourne recorded an identical score against Avenue 3rds.

Rowlands Castle continued their good start when they amassed three more games than Stubbington.

Only one of Lee’s two Dave Walkers was on duty this week, but that was enough to help them to a 3-1 victory over Avenue 3rds.

Following on from the 12-set marathon recorded earlier, Chichester’s midweek ladies were involved in an almost equally close match against Swanmore.

Only 10 sets were required this time, but 90 games were played overall, Swanmore taking the winning draw points by 47 games to 43.

In one of the more straightforward victories of the week, Avenue midweek ladies 1sts overcame CourtX 3-1.

In midweek Division 2, Warsash Ladies 1sts retained club bragging rights by beating the 2nds 3-1, but not before the latter’s Sarah Gray and Anne Hall had beaten Mary Quinn and Karen Harrison.

Rowlands Castle proved once again that it is always worth fighting for every game when, having shared the rubbers 2-2 with Wickham, the games they won in their two losing rubbers gave them the winning draw points by just one game.

With Lee’s midweek ladies now able to field two experience weekend league players in Helen Brind and Megan Cremer, they made short work of Avenue 2nds, Brind and Cremer losing just three games in the four sets played.

Reigning Winter League midweek men’s champions Avenue got their season back on track with a comfortable 3-1 over Warsash 2nds.

Fishbourne and Lee rounded off the week with another long match. Fishbourne looked well in control when they won both the opening rubbers, although they needed a tie break in both cases. But Nick Challis and Trevor Grant got Lee back into the match with a straight sets win over Gerry Savage and Ian Sturt.

Bill Cove and Dick Nicholson then shared the first two sets with Martin Doyle and Jim Clark, leaving the match to be decided on the final tie break.

Lee had to take the tie break to level the rubbers and give them the win on sets countback. And win it they did!