Several Sidmouth Tennis teams have been in action over the past week although the weather did force the postponement of the Ladies B match at David Lloyd’s last Friday, writes Lesley Cranston.

In a home meeting with Teignmouth last Monday they continued their fine start to the season with an overall 6-4 win.

Marlene Maynard and Kate Truman struggled to find their form, losing the opening rubber on a tie-break, going down 10-8. However, they bounced back to win the next in convincing style 6-3, 6-2.

Sally Lockhart and Jackie Ensall’s on-court partnership continues to blossom and they registered a comfortable 6-1, 6-0 win in their first rubber and followed it with a terrific match in the second against the stronger Teignmouth team.

Lockhart and Ensall took the first set 6-3 before being edged out 7-6 and then succumbed to a momentary lapse of concentration in the deciding championship tie-break.

This gave Teignmouth the break they needed to finish off the final set 10-2. The Sidmouth ladies were, nevertheless, pleased with the final result especially as it was played in squally conditions with a ‘hooligan’ seagull insisting on making its presence felt!

The ladies’ A opened this season’s campaign away to Victoria Park and came up against stronger opposition than expected.

The host side fielded two new young players who proved too good for both Sidmouth pairs although Viv Bess and Di Kendall-Torry did manage to win one set from this rubber. The same pairing went on to beat the second couple, but unfortunately this was not the case for Debbie Snelgrove and Mary Dean who just couldn’t quite manage to convert the critical points.

The Mixed Doubles’ team have completed two matches; the first away to Budleigh Salterton, who proved to be solid opposition for the visiting team. Martin Truman and Debbie Snelgrove won through in one of their rubbers gaining the only two points that Sidmouth managed to obtain from that match. However, they were more successful in their home tie against Lympstone last Friday, this time the score was reversed in their favour coming away with a 6-2 win. Mark Heywood and Gill Doling were the other contributors to this victory.