Sidmouth Tennis Club began the New Year with an ace evening of tennis triples organised by coach Sue Wiltshire, writes Vici Topping.
The competition, normally run before Christmas, had been postponed due to rain.
A dozen teams of three, with players of all abilities, ages and gender, adopting the names from the Christmas song, "The Twelve Days of Christmas, " for example, "The Partridges", "The Geese a laying," etc competed in round robin fashion for the coveted Triples' trophy and bottles of Prosecco.
Such is the popularity of this event that places to compete were 'sold out,' within an hour or two - not really surprising as membership has now reached the, very healthy, 200 mark!
Eventual winners, "Partridge in a Pear Tree," aka Richard Davies, Jane Corry and Barry Garfitt , received the honours from Sue Wiltshire. It was also an opportunity for the members to thank Sue for all the hard work she puts in with adults and juniors throughout the year.
As such, on behalf of the players, Lynda Palmer presented her with a very lovely goody bag of Jo Malone.
Fortunately, the weather was kind and the evening a great success.
Indeed, the weather has proved to be a significant personality in this season's Winter League fixtures where it has not been so generous.
Many matches have been postponed and rearranged so where I would normally be reporting on team positions approaching the end of the season, we find ourselves barely mid way.
Both men's and ladies' A teams are finding it tough in their respective Division One leagues where they take on the best of what Exeter and District can offer, In contrast, the ladies' B are equal top of Division two with the Ladies' C maintaining a solid mid table performance.
The men's B, having played only five of their 12 matches find themselves in the bottom two at present but plenty of games left to improve upon that.
Both mixed teams are doing well with mixed A vying for top position in Division Three and mixed B challenging for second place in Division Six where Sidford (a former Division One team) are streets ahead at the top.
So, in spite of the weather being the main adversary of the season to date, players have still braced the cold, wind and rain to represent their club across East Devon. Here's to a successful 2020 for all.
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