In spite of the recent horrendous weather, somewhat surprisingly play continued almost as planned with only one series of matches lost to the weather. The Black Soles although leading the Monday night group cannot yet be described as running away with the competition, but they are showing a clean pair of heels to their nearest rival as a result of this week’s matches in which they overcame the Buffalo Wings 52-44. Jimmy Renfrew who is currently playing the tennis of his life continues to impress for the Black Soles. A dominant win with Martin Hamblin in the doubles and a narrow win with Liz Murphy against Donal Burns and Bernie Cornyn saw Jimmy put his team in pole position. Brendan Duffy also contributed to his team’s win with a fine doubles win when partnering the experienced Neville Crawford against Alex Knowles and James Morrison. James is one worth watching as he is showing signs that he is beginning to find his range in a sport that he only started playing very recently. Alex has missed a lot of tennis through injury this year and is another who will likely show marked improvement as the league progresses. Of the Wednesday night teams, a tightly fought match between the No 1s Davy Thompson and Andrea Crawford (Thai Monks) against Dominic Burns and Bernie Hall (Baked Oysters) was drawn 6-6. One of Monk’s stalwarts Iain Kennedy, partnered Jenny Kelly in the mixed doubles and the pair enjoyed a solid win over Seamus McGuinness and Joy Fletcher taking the match 7-5. Joy has only recently come back to tennis after a few years away developing a golf swing (with some success), but proves the point that once mastered, tennis is a game you can pick up where you left off. Jason Burns also contributed to the Monks overall win by winning the mixed doubles with Maxine Leary against Keith Miller and Bennie Sheridan 8-4. The final series of Wednesday night matches saw the Peking Ducks taking on the Crab Claws. The decisive match winning performance that saw the Ducks emerge from the depths was Bridie McCaffrey and Sheila Colville taking their match 10-2 which saw their team scrape home by the narrowest of margins 49-47.
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