It’s not just the weather that’s hotting up – so are the Portsmouth Summer Tennis League title races

Teams in this division play against each other home and away, and three weeks ago the leading duo, Chichester and CourtX, could only be separated by two games, 44 to 42, in favour of the former.

With just three points between the teams, a clear win either way would help to resolve the destination of the title. But there was still nothing between them after the first rubbers were shared, with a one game advantage to CourtX.

Michael Ackerman and James Furlong took the 1’s v 1’s rubber for Chichester, but John Chequer and Sam Jones soon got on top of Gerald Edwards and Tony Walsh in the final

rubber. A first set win at 6-2 put CourtX in control, but Edwards and Walsh won four games in the second set to set up a rare tie - rubbers, sets and games all shared equally.

Competition is no less fierce in Division 4, where just six points separate six teams after both weekend matches finished with the rubbers shared 2-2.

Alverstoke moved to within three points of the leaders after edging out Chichester 2nds on sets countback, Tony Norish and Chris Titterington earning the extra winning draw point when they took a set off Chichester’s top pair, Sean Savage and Freddie Whitby.

JEM Tennis kept themselves on the fringes of the title race when they shared the rubbers with high-flying Southsea 1sts, taking the winning draw points on sets countback, Steve Croft and Matt Johnson having lost both their rubbers, but only after a third set match tie break.

Just one mixed match was played, Rowlands Castle travelling to Abshot CC and coming back with the winning draw points. The home team’s top pair, Nacho Mesa and Ros Kamaryc, won both their rubbers, but they needed match tie breaks to do so.

With both the Rowlands pairs beating Abshot’s second pair in straight sets, Castle won the points by 6 sets to 4.

Ryde Lawn ladies 2nds made sure of their position in the top division for another season when they defeated Lee 3-1, while one division down Ventnor overwhelmed Avenue 3rds.

Ladies Division 3 is as closely fought as ever. The three points that Stubbington earned from their clash with Wickham, combined with Rowlands Castle - hampered by an injury to one of the players - failing to beat bottom of the table Southsea, took them into first place. But with the season only just past the halfway point, there is still all to play for.

The midweek masters fixtures took the brunt of the heat with Chichester ladies closing the gap on CourtX in the top division.

Lee shared the rubbers with Ryde Lawn 1sts, who took the winning draw points by 5 sets to 4.

Swanmore ladies continued their unbeaten run in the second division, though once again the rubbers were shared, Swanmore securing the points by 5 sets to 4.

Rowlands Castle’s winning draw against Ryde Lawn 2nds means they still have a chance of catching Swanmore, though they will have to beat them in their return fixture to claim the title.

Wellow and Warsash 1sts both shared the rubbers with their opponents in the mixed division 1 clashes, with Ryde Lawn 2nds and Avenue 1sts respectively.

Wellow won their games countback by a clear 11 games while Warsash claimed the winning draw in their match by 5 sets to 4.

Mixed division 2 saw wins for Ryde Lawn 2nds (against Warsash) Fishbourne (against Ryde Mead) and Carlton Green (against Southsea).

The men at Avenue and Chichester rounded off the week’s results with wins against

CourtX and Warsash 2nds respectively.