TENNIS LEAGUE SET FAIR FOR THE AUTUMN

Last week saw the start of the 2010 Autumn league at Enniskillen Lawn Tennis Club. Built on a team format incorporating doubles and mixed doubles and played on each Monday and Wednesday night over the next 12 weeks, the league enables players of all standards, including beginners, to play against people at a level similar to themselves while at the same time contribute to their overall team score.

This year the League organisers have added additional teams to the event in order to accommodate huge demand for places following the membership increases experienced by the club over the last 12 months.

Split into two sections with the top two teams qualifying for the semi-finals in December, team Pumpkins led by Josie Boyle are early favourites to top the Monday night section while Maxine Leary's Firecrackers are expected to head the Wednesday night section.

First up on Monday night were Paul Lendrum's Toffees, who had a hard battle against Sandra Parkers Bonfires, with the Toffees eventually coming out on top 54 games to 43 games across the eight matches played. While the men's side of the draw was closely matched with newcomer Matt Dillon winning both his matches for the Toffees it was the greater experience of Ita Hughes and Mary Griffin on the ladies side which pulled the Toffees through a potentially sticky tie. Second match on Monday night featured group favourites Pumpkins who proved too strong for the Conkers led by Kieran Hannan with the Pumpkins opening their account with a convincing 63-33 victory.

Matches opened in section B on Wednesday night with Maxine's Firecrackers taking on the Bangers led by Ruth Armstrong. With Neville Crawford and Allen Reynolds both top scoring for Firecrackers on 19 games out of a maximum 24 the Firecrackers were always in control and despite a valiant effort from the Bangers captain Ruth Armstrong and Sean Bogue the Firecrackers were victorious 66-30.

Wednesdays second match was a much closer affair with Roisin O'Connell's Rockets narrowly failing to upset group second favourites Sparklers captained by Brenda Davis. This match featured a number of close finishes and despite only losing 3 of the 8 matches Rockets narrowly lost out by 46 games to 50. Sparklers had to rely heavily on club coach Matthew McGann who took a total of 20 games from 24. The match result was in doubt right to the finish with Rockets needing to win the last two rubbers by a combined 6 games. Despite 7-5 victories in both rubbers with Reggie Ferguson and Johnny Guette overcoming Martin Hamblin and Brian Donaldson and Bridie McCaffrey and Roisin O'Connell defeating Gwen Wilson and Lisa Greaves also 7-5 it was just short of the winning line and Sparklers hung on to take the match.