Last Monday night saw the semi-finals of the Enniskillen Tennis Spring League take place with the winners and runners up from the Monday league taking on the top two from the Wednesday league. The respective winners of the two semis then went on to play the Final on Wednesday night.
Semi Final Night
First to play were Monday group winners Yvonne Masterson’s Franco’s Specials who, given their amazing unbeaten run through the group stages, were justifiably strong favourites to make the final. In the first semi they were up against Sheila Colville’s Chilli Monks who themselves had led the Wednesday group right up until the last group match. While all eight matches were close affairs, with seven of the eight matches finishing 7-5 or 6-6, the Specials were able to squeeze through on the right side of the result in all eight matches to come out on top 55-41 against the luckless Monks.
The largest winning margin in the match came courtesy of Specials captain Yvonne with mixed partner Rory Houston winning 8-4 on court four.
The second semi had Wednesday group winners Pizza Slicers, captained by Eilis Bogue, seeking to put the hoodoo of Wednesday teams not having made a final in the last two years to rest as they took on Michelle McTeague’s Silverhill Ducks. The Slicers would have hoped for a better start than a 10-2 loss in the first mixed but they were up against top Ducks Scott Hubbard and Martina Boyd who were looking to retain their unbeaten league record. Fortunately, the damage was quickly repaired by a superb 9-3 win for Brendan Duffy and Enid Redmond and after swapping 7-5 wins in the bottom two mixed the Pizza Slicers were only two games behind at the halfway stage. The Slicers then played their Ace Card with their own unbeaten pairing of Anne Smyth and Aine King delivering another convincing display winning 9-3 to put the Slicers ahead. However, the hoodoo struck again as Silverhill Ducks won the remaining three doubles to clinch a massive victory by the smallest 49-47
Final Night
With both finalists coming out of Mondays group both teams had already played each other three times in this year’s league with Francos Specials three wins making them strong favourites before a ball was served. The Silverhill Ducks were immediately in trouble with their unbeaten pairing of Scott Hubbard and Martina Boyd going down 7-5 to Davy Thompson and sub Eilis Bogue. A follow up 8-4 win for Specials Ollie McShea and Lisa Greaves against Paul Lendrum and Leonie Madigan compounded the Ducks Dilemma. Sharing the remaining mixed 7-5 left the Ducks a long way back at the half way point, trailing 27-21. While two brilliant 9-3 wins for the Ducks, firstly for Martina and Leonie over Eilis and Lisa on court two and then for Jason Burns and Andrew Jackson over Kevin Burns and sub Emmett Stewart on court three did open up possibilities for the underdogs these seemed to disappear almost immediately as Yvonne and Michelle Kennedy came up from court 4 with a resounding 10-2 win for the Slicers over sub Fiona Drumm and Duck’s captain Michelle McTeague to restore the Specials lead. With only the top men’s doubles left on court the Ducks were trailing by only 2 games. However even though their top pairing of Scott Hubbard and Paul Lendrum had scored some memorable victories throughout the league their record against the top specials Davy Thompson and Ollie McShea was not good encouraging standing at three straight losses. Despite this Scott and Paul stood strong to score a telling 8-4 win and secure this year’s league title for the Specials.
In presenting the awards Mark Cousins thanked the league Sponsors, Franco’s Restaurant, for their continued support of the club and also thanked the captains of all eight teams for their work throughout the league. The doubles now take a backseat to the singles as the mens and womens singles ladders get under way at the club.
