Francos Autumn Tennis League
Halloween week brought further horrors for the Ferraras and Early Birds as the Margerhitas and Mad Fish treated themselves to 61-35 victories over the bottom teams in week 5 of the Francos Autumn tennis league.
Monday Night
Trailing group leaders the Bolzanos by 9 games before tonight’s match Donal Burn’s Margerhitas made a significant move towards the league semis winning seven and drawing one of the eight matches against Paul Lendrums Ferraras . Top scorers for the Margerhitas spanned the decades with league first timer Nadine Stewart using her strength from the back of the court to amass an impressive 17 games while Seamus O’Connell reportedly not playing in his first league displayed great accuracy and plenty of guile to again score heavily adding 19 games to the Margerhitas eventual 61-35 winning score. Only a valiant stand in the closing mens doubles by Paul Lendrum and Martin Hamblin who battled to a 6-6 tie against Donal Burns and Sean Bogue prevented the Ferraras suffering the dreaded clean sweep.
Looking to respond to the Margerhitas challenge in the nights second match the Bolzanos got off to a solid start by winning the top two mixed matches by a combined 15 games to 9 but their progress was temporarily halted by a long awaited first league win for Mark Cousins and Catherine Sloan over Brian Donaldson and Gwen Wilson in the bottom match to leave the Milanos only 4 behind at the halfway stage. All four doubles matches were close affairs and a tight 7-5 win for Milano’s Lisa Greaves and Vanessa McBrien over Sandra Parker and Veronica Bogue saw the lead cut to two games. However despite spirited opposition the Bolzanos closed out both mens doubles with 7-5 wins to take the tie 51-45. Top scorer for the Bolzanos was the super consistent Clive Funston with a crucial 15 game contribution along with captain Alex Knowles who played faultless tennis from the baseline to see his team through to victory.
Wednesday Night
After the sudden drop in temperature on Wednesday night it was yet again the Mad Fish who turned up the heat in a pulsating 61-35 win over the Early Birds. Despite Early Bird Maxine Leary winning both her matches on the night it never going to be enough as the Mad Fish top and bottom pairings produced all the fireworks. Biggest winner on the night was Finn Corrigan who was in sparkling form winning his mixed doubles with Andrea Crawford 9-3 and his mens doubles with Brendan Duffy 10-2. A further 18 games from Mad Fish captain Roisin O’Connell winning both her matches 9-3 sealed the Early Birds fate leaving the Mad Fish in clear control of Wednesdays group.
The second game of the evening saw the second placed Billi Billis take on the third placed Chilli Monks. This was expected to be a close game and that was the way it turned out. A number of subs graced both sides but they fitted in very well with their partners. The opening mixed doubles proved very tight swinging one way and they the other. Davy Thompson and his partner Josie Gillen got the Billis off to a flyer winning 8 to 4 but Joy Fletcher and Tony Ringland levelled for the Monks. Nick and Moira restored the 4 point lead for the Billis with an 8 to 4 win leaving the Billis 6 up at the half way stage. The fireworks continued in the second set of games with some of Davy Thompsons shots brighter than the nights fireworks. In fact he claimed these were for his sublime touches. However, he could not compete with Joy who with Gwen Wilson recorded an 8 to 4 victory. This give Joy a remarkable 16 points on the night. Despite this the Monks could only close the halfway deficit by two leaving the final score 50 to 46 in favour of the Billis.
Francos League Standings after five weeks with the top two to qualify from each group are:
Monday Nights: Margerhitas 257 games, Bolzanos 256, Milanos 241, Ferrraras 206
Wednesday Night: Mad Fish 283 games, Billi Billis 248, Chilli Monks 232, Early Birds 197
