After the January freeze up caused the cancellation of the first week of the Enniskillen Tennis Spring League, last Monday finally saw the action commence. The league involves upwards on 70 club members playing doubles and mixed doubles in a team format over the next ten Monday and Wednesday nights with the top four teams progressing to finals week at the end of March.
First on court on Monday night were Maxine’s Magicians to play Andy’s Aces in what turned out to be a thriller. Despite losing two and drawing one of the top four mixed matches Andy Aces were able to take a slender two game lead into the doubles matches thanks in no small part to a 9-3 win for Martin Hamblin and Lisa Greaves. However the roles were reversed in the doubles as Bennie Sheridan and Carol McCusker hit the ground running with a convincing 9-3 win in the bottom match, in the process helping Maxine’s Magicians win by the minimum margin 49-47.
While the overall score in the nights second match was not as close, the 52-44 win for Louise’s Slammers over Matt Backhanders came from an accumulation of six close wins out of eight that enable the Slammers to gradually draw away. The biggest win of the match was an 8-4 win for Ollie McShea and Michelle Kennedy for the Slammers which was quickly cancelled out by a similar score for the Backhanders Martina Boyd and Geraldine Millar. The Backhanders only other win on the night came from sub Paul Carron and league debutant Aine King but the closeness of the six matches finishing 7-5 will offer great encouragement to the Backhanders for the league ahead. That was not Ollie’s only highlight as he finally served that ever elusive ace to the unfortunate and by all accounts distracted Daire.
Unfortunately, the snow and freezing conditions returned on Wednesday leaving the Wednesday night teams waiting until next week to get their league campaigns under way.
