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As perfect tennis weather made a welcome return to the Enniskillen courts after last week’s sudden storms the Francos Autumn tennis league moved towards the halfway stage.
The opening match on Monday night was the perfect opportunity for Donal Burns second placed Margerhitas to put some distance between themselves and Catherine Sloan’s third placed Milanos but the match quickly turned to damage limitation for the Margerhitas as the Milanos took the first half mixed doubles by a convincing 29-19 games. Best for the Milanos were the colour coordinated pairing of Daire Dillon and Lisa Greaves in the pink with a 9-3 win and Jerome Nicolle and Dympna Slowey dovetailing perfectly to take the top match 8-4. While the Margerhitas did win three of the remaining four doubles they were all by the minimum margin 7-5 and it was not enough to undo the damage inflicted by Milanos and to a lesser extent Josie’s own racket with the Milanos going on to win 51-45.
The nights second match was a top v bottom affair with Alex Knowles highflying and unbeaten Bolzanos expected to account easily for the winless Ferraras captained by Paul Lendrum. However with Paul and Geraldine Miller opening the tie with a battling 7-5 win over Clive Funston and Sandra Parker the Bolzanos knew they were in for a tough night and following three consecutive 6-6 ties in the remaining mixed matches the un-fancied Ferraras led by two at the half way mark. This new found form was carried into the doubles and when Kevin Burns and James Morrison scored an 8-4 win over Alex Knowles and sub Brian Donaldson where it was impossible to get it past Kevin and impossible to get it over James that elusive win was now in sight for the Ferraras who led by 6 games with one match still on court. Cue Clive Funston and JR Dundas for the Bolzanos who dominated the exchanges in their match with Paul Lendrum and Martin Hamblin and leading 9-2 with one game to go looked set to claim a get out of jail victory for the Bolzanos. However the Ferraras pair fought to the end and when Martin passed Clive with a fierce winner down the line the overall match ended all tied 48 games apiece.
With the top two playing in tonight’s late match both the Early Birds and Chilli Monks were looking for a clear win to give themselves some hope of qualification from the Wednesday night group. Unfortunately for the Early Birds this was to be a repeat of their 50-46 round one defeat to the Monks . This was despite a number of brave comebacks by the Early Birds in particular David Casey and Sheila Colville in their 6-6 draw with Tony Ringland and Joy Fletcher and Bernie Cornyn and Maxine Leary coming from 3-1 down to take their match 7-5 against the strong Monks pairing of Leonie Madigan and Brenda Davis. David went on to record an impressive win with partner Rod McCreesh in their mens match against Tony Ringland and Nick Meeke but a hugely impressive 20 points haul from Yvonne Masterson was enough to see the Chilli Monks through at the finish.
When current joint leaders the Billi Billis and Mad Fish met in round one it was a tense battle with every match either drawn or won by the minimum 7-5 margin so it must have come as a shock to the Billi Billis to find themselves on the wrong end of a 60-36 pounding against the same opponents earlier this week. The key difference this time round was the ever improving form of Marius Blake and Andy Elliott who won their respective mixed matches 8-4 with the super consistent Martina Boyd and 7-5 with Mad Fish captain Roisin O’Connell before going on to win their mens doubles 10-2. The Billi Billis defeat would have been even heavier but for Josie Gillen and Moira McAdam’s magnificent 6-6 draw coming back from 6-1 down against Andrea Crawford and Veronica Bogue. This win puts the Mad Fish firmly in charge of the group leaving the Billi Billis looking nervously over their shoulder at next weeks opponents the Chilli Monks who are now only 12 games behind.
Francos League Standings after four weeks with the top two to qualify from each group are:
Monday Nights: Bolzanos 205 games, Margerhitas 196, Milanos 196, Ferrraras 171
Wednesday Night: Mad Fish 222 games, Billi Billis 198, Chilli Monks 186, Early Birds 162