All the Sidmouth Tennis Club teams have played their first matches of the summer league season with varying degrees of success, writes Lesley Cranston.

Starting with the bad news! The mixed doubles and men’s A teams both suffered heavy away defeats, in the former case, against an always strong performing Budleigh Salterton, but the games were close and the tennis enjoyable even if the 0-8 result was less so!

The men’s A managed only a point against Teignmouth second team in their opener with some of the rust from the winter off season still evident. However, there was better news for the ladies’ teams and me’ns B. The latter took a strong team to face Kingsteington E and earned themselves a decisive 8-2 win.

They might have made it easier for themselves by claiming a rubber as Bob Hefhill and John Clarke didn’t get started till after 7pm due to the opposition only having three junior players ready to play. It took over 40 minutes to find a fourth as the club captain had to cycle home and back to get his kit!

The wait didn’t deter the Sidmouth pair who went on to win one in straight sets and the other in the tie-break 13-11. In fact, both pairings had remarkably similar scorings in each rubber, Mark Heywood and Mike Fletcher equalling the same number of games and also requiring a closely fought tie-break 12-10 to collect the eight points.

The ladies’ A, now back in Division Two went to Victoria Park somewhat in trepidation having been walloped off the court in previous encounters.

However, with shifting positions among the league divisions the opposition on this occasion was not as forceful as anticipated. Stalwarts, Viv Bess and Di Kendall-Torry battled tenaciously against the first couple and came through in two ‘well rallied’ sets 6-4, 6-2.

Meanwhile Mary Dean and Lesley Cranston got off to a convincing start with a 6-1 first set and then promptly went 2-0 down, indeed, were in danger of going 3-0 down which would have made this a tricky contest as their opponents gained confidence. The pair steadied the ship and went on to take the set 6-4.

In the reverse singles, Dean and Cranston managed to assert their authority and after a tight first set 6-4 went on to take the second 6-1.

Unfortunately, Bess and Kendall-Torry lost some of their momentum initially allowing their opposition to race to a 5-1 lead which the Sidmouth pairing hauled back to 5-4 before succumbing.

Having woken up again they took the second set 6-1 to go into a championship tie-breaker in which Victoria Park showed resilience to win 10-7 with the overall result seeing Sidmouth win 7-2.

The ladie’s B thrashed their opponents 8-0 in their first match of the season at home to Torquay D. The team of Marlene Maynard and Kate Truman won both their rubbers easily 6-1, 6-4, 6-0,6-1, but Jackie Ensall and young Mollie Wiltshire had more of a battle in their second encounter, coming back from 5-0 down to take the first set 7-6 and then again falling behind in the second set but showing great determination to come through 6-4. This is a great start to their newly promoted Division Five campaign.

For more information about Sidmouth Tennis Club visit our website at www.sidmouthtennisclub.co.uk