Last Monday saw the first matches in this year’s Enniskillen Tennis Autumn League get under way. Sponsored once again by FRANCOS Restaurant the Autumn League sees over 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 start of December.
Monday Night
The weather for opening week saw players enjoying perfect dry conditions. Starting off proceedings we had the Food Fighters led by Martin Hamblin take on the Early Birds captained by Brenda Davis. While most games saw closely fought matches it was the performances of Andy Elliott that took the spotlight with a 10-2 win in the mixed, partnered by Kate McManus and an even more impressive 11-1 win in the mens with Matt Dillon. This put the Food Fighters in an unassailable position eventually running out comfortable 56-40 winners.
Monday’s second match was a much closer affair as Mary Griffin’s Crème Brulees took on Ollie McShea’s Seabass Supremes. The Crème Brulees got off to a strong start and led by 6 at the half way stage in no small part due to Nick Meekes and Kathleen Murphy’s powerful 10-2 victory in the mixed. However, the Supremes fought back, with league newcomer Ken Yang partnered by Reggie Ferguson winning their mens doubles 8-4 and Anne Smyth and Yvonne Masterson achieving a similar scoreline in the ladies doubles. When the last match on court finished a tight and competitive 6-6 draw between Donal Burns and Ollie against Jerome Nicolle and JR Dundas this left the overall score tied up at 48 games apiece.
Wednesday Night
The first match on Wednesday night saw Francos Specials, captained by Mark Cousins, start their league with a 52-44 win over Johnny Guette’s Prawn Kings. With all games producing close contests it was the more consistent soring of the Specials which saw them through and in particular the two 8-4 victories chalked up by Ann White, firstly partnered by Brian Donaldson in the mixed followed by the clinching victory with Carol McCusker who was making a very successful start to her first ever league campaign.
Wednesday night’s second series of matches were mostly tight affairs. John Griffin and Enid Redmond opened the scoring for the Mighty Ducks with a narrow 7-5 win over Dominic Burns and Lisa Greaves. After a slow start, Hugh Maguire and Ruth Elliott won by a similar margin for the Chilli Squids overcoming Marius Blake and Ruth Armstrong. Hugh is currently riding high on the back of some excellent performances in the recent closed tournament. It was good to see Garth Armstrong back in the league once again and it must have seemed to his opponents that he had never been away as teaming up with Yvonne Masterson, they ran out convincing 8-4 winners. Also returning to the league was Hazel Dineen and teaming up with Gwen Wilson, they had an excellent result when tying the final match at 6-6 against Sheila Colville and Yvonne. The decisive matches of the night were both won by Tony Ringland when partnering Sheila and later in the night Garth, and the margins of victory awarded victory to the Mighty Ducks by 57 points to 39.
