Blake’s of ‘the Hollow’ 125 Years Celebration Spring Tennis League
Monday Night
The Chardonnays are the Monday night team to catch and this week it was the turn of Matt Dillon’s Pool Sharks to try and close the gap and what a start they had with Sonja Hateboer and Jimmy Renfrew winning the top seeded match 9-3 against Sandra Parker and James Wilson., Their good start continued as Matt and Mary Griffin led 4-1 only to be reeled in by the never shout die Vanessa McBrien and sub Stevie Kettyles. With their team trailing by 2 pts The Chardonnays Claude Bersot and Jennifer Kelly came up with a much needed boost winning 9-3 and leaving the Chardonnays 4 clear at the halfway stage. However seeing Sonja and Linda Corrigan winning their ladies doubles 9-3 and with Jimmy & Garth Armstrong leading 4-2 on Court 1 it looked like the Pool Sharks were back in the hunt for their first win in the league but James and Ollie McShea regained their composure and won the next 6 games to take a pulsating match 8-4. Captain Matt and the ever improving James Morrison had to settle for a 6-6 tie with Stevie settling into his new role alongside the French Connection Claude leaving the Pool Sharks needing a victory in the final ladies doubles to break their duck. Chardonnays pairing Vanessa McBrien and Jennifer Kelly had other ideas and they continued their strong league form with an 8-4 win giving the Chardonnays a 51-45 victory.
Monday’s second match saw Perfect Pints get back to winning ways with a 50-46 win over Moira McAdams Serving Aces. Having seen the Aces open up with a confidence boosting 9-3 win for Donal Burns and Louise McGann the Perfect Pints quickly struck back with Reggie Ferguson and Lisa Greaves both hitting top form in their 9-3 win over Brendan Duffy and Bennie Sheridan. All tied at the half way stage the Aces again hit the front as Donal and Conor McShea produced a superb 7-5 win over Pints captain Paul Lendrum and JR Dundas. It was Lisa who again pulled the Pints level this time partnered by Jenny Cruikshank taking a 7-5 victory and leaving the overall outcome down to fellow Pints Josie Boyle and Leonie Madigan who produced an impressive 8-4 win over in-form Louise and Moira.
Wednesday Night
Level 7 returned to winning ways on Wednesday night when they leap frogged the Snug Bugs into second place in the table winning by a clear 14 points. The best performer for Level 7 was Allen Reynolds who rolled back the years winning 15 points. Allen was ably assisted by the rest of his team who only lost one match on the night. Maxine Leary and Vivienne Kells had two good performances and Matthew Duffy and Michelle Kennedy won 14 points each. Snug Bugs tried hard all evening however even outside intervention could not save them when the lights went out as Tony was on hand to get them going again.
In the second match of the night table topping Irish Coffees had to share the points with the Cocktail Knights as the elements struck again. At the time John Griffin was well in control of his match, at least 1-0 up he assures me but this time bad light did finally stop play. However with the gremlins now sorted John will only have to wait until next Wednesday to continue his winning streak. Its just not cricket John!
Standings after week five of nine with the top two to qualify from each night are:
Monday Nights: Chardonnays 261 games, Perfect Pints 245 , Serving Aces 235, Pool Sharks 219
Wednesday Night: Irish Coffees 258 games, Level7 245, Snug Bugs 240, Cocktail Knights 221
