Sidmouth ladies’ tennis team ended the season on a high with consecutive wins over teams representing Exeter Country Club.

On Sunday, Captain Vivienne Bess and partner Di Kendall-Torry were accompanied by Nicki Keele and Debbie Snelgrove in making the journey to Exeter for the scheduled 10am start, but little did they know that it would not be until 1.45pm that the final stroke was made, thus proving to be one of the longest matches of the season!

This was all the more surprising as the score line of 1-8 in favour of the visitors reflected not only a good standard of tennis throughout, but also strength, fitness and determination to see the match through to the end.

During the after-match refreshments, one of the home team remarked that she could not remember losing by such a score line.

The vagaries of the fixture list saw Sidmouth hosting the stronger “C” Team from Exeter Country Club, the following evening.

On this occasion, Hilary Caldwell and Mary Dean joined forces with Viv and Di.

Not only was this the final match of the season, it was an encounter that Viv and her team were keen to win in order to avenge a heavy defeat suffered at the hands of the same opponents earlier in the season.

Whatever Viv said in her pre-match team talk, it certainly did the trick, for there was no lack of motivation in the team’s excellent performance in securing a victory by the very satisfying margin of 6-4 against the League Leaders.

Sidmouth ended the season in third spot, just failing to bounce back at the first time of asking to Division 2, having secured seven wins and one draw out of their 12 fixtures.

However, this latest result, when compared to the reverse suffered earlier in the season away to the same opponents, is seen as a strong, reliable indicator of the progress that Viv and her team have achieved as the season has progressed and, with the undoubted benefits of the larger squad, it would be no surprise for promotion to be gained next season.