Tenacious tennis ladies

Another dreary, wet day greeted the ladies’ tennis teams as Sidmouth B hosted the replay against David Lloyd C.

The pairing of Marlene Maynard and Jackie Ensall produced consistent, battling play but the opposition hit out, generating good, attacking tennis.

The rallies in the second set created great shots from both teams but the home side could not convert the game points, going down 2-6, 4-6.

Sally Lockhart, paired with Vici Topping (a the last minute replacement), played effective topspin forehands and with some great volleys won the first set. Unfortunately, they were unable to capitalise on this promising start and just lost in the championship tie-break 6-3, 4-6, 6-10.

Determined to keep up the pressure Maynard and Ensall found better form in the next rubber. During excellent, long rallies they produced some fine angles and passing shots to come out on top winning 6-3, 7-5.

Lockhart and Topping worked well together from the start and battled tenaciously to bring the first set to a tie-break at six points all. Sadly, they just missed out having been 5-0 up. After this disappointment the pair succumbed fairly quickly in the second set finishing 6-7, 2-6. The overall result was 6-3 to the visitors but with two more matches to play in the Winter League, the Sidmouth Ladies’ B team are hoping to climb higher in the Division 3 table before the close.