Sidmouth Tennis Club completed its Winter League programme with two home matches producing both a defeat and a success, writes Lesley Cranston.

In the Ladies Doubles fixture, the team came up against strong pairings in their Newton Abbott opposition. The partnerships of Vivienne Bess and Debbie Snelgrove, Jill Dolling and Hilary Caldwell both achieved one win each.

Three out of the four matches involved championship tie-breaks indicating these were keenly fought matches, but Sidmouth narrowly lost 5-6 in sets. In spite of this they may yet finish top of their division!

It seemed fitting that the final match of the season was very much a local affair against nearest neighbours, Sidford. In the mixed pairs, Sidmouth’s Lesley Cranston and last minute replacement, Alex Spalding came through in straight sets to post the first win of the night.

This success was then equalled by Debbie Snelgrove and Peter Fung in a closely contested encounter with many deuce games in two lengthy sets.

The doubles pairings resulted in honours even for each club, Sidford men overcoming the home side, convincingly in the second set whilst Sidmouth ladies proved a little too strong for their

counterparts resulting in an overall win for the home team of 6-2. Sidmouth looks like taking second place in this division.