EARLY UPSET FOR THE PUMPKINS

Last Monday and Wednesday night saw the second round of matches played in the Autumn League at Enniskillen Tennis Club.

With eight players on each team playing for a maximum of 96 games each week it was Sandra Parkers Bonfires who prevailed in the opening match, defeating Martin Sharkey's Wizards 64-32. After last Mondays narrow defeat, the Bonfires will be delighted with victory over the second favourites in the group, who may have been caught cold on their first outing in this autumn's league. With Seamus O'Connell contributing 19 games from number 4, backed up by strong support from Louise McGann's 18 Games and Kevin Burns 17 games, it was a comfortable victory for the Bonfires with only Wizards captain Martin Sharkey and Moira McAdam, in a mixed doubles 6-6 tie with Leonie Madigan and Clive Bruce, preventing a clean sweep of all eight matches.

Next on court was a match up between the group favourites Pumpkins and Paul Lendrum's Toffees with both teams looking to add to victories in round one of the league. With winning performances from Susannah Hughes Jordan and Sonja Hateboor both of whom were standing in as substitutes for the Toffees and with James Wilson winning firstly his mixed doubles match with his partner Mary Griffin 8-4 against Conor McMahon and Anne Smith and also crucially winning his men's doubles match with Matt Dillon 8-4 against Conor McMahon and Roman Stefanyan it meant that a valiant effort from Pumpkins captain Jimmy Renfrew and Clive Funston in winning the top men's doubles match 7-5 against Paul Lendrum and Donal Burns was not enough to avoid a narrow 51 games to 45 games defeat.

Wednesday night saw Maxine Leary's Firecrackers overcome Roisin O'Connell's Rockets 56-40 in a terrific series of games. Leading by only 6 games after the 4 mixed doubles matches, Firecrackers needed contributions from all 8 players to complete a 56-40 victory over the disappointed Rockets. A hard fought 7-5 victory with John Griffin over Steven Miller and Josie Gillen in the mixed doubles and a convincing 9-3 victory with Andrea Crawford in the ladies doubles over Josie Gillen and Enid Redmond saw Bernadette Cornyn emerge as the key match winner for the Firecrackers ably supported by another 18 game haul from Neville Crawford. This win gives the Firecrackers an early lead in the group but the Rockets will have taken encouragement from their all round performance and will hope to achieve that elusive victory against the Bangers in the next round.

Final match of the week had the Bangers looking to improve on last weeks defeat to the Firecrackers with their opponents the Sparklers in search of their second win. Unfortunately for the Bangers, Matthew McGann was again unstoppable contributing 19 games to the Sparklers total of 53. Despite Ruth Elliott winning both her matches on the night and the Bangers winning the bottom half of the card by 6 games it wasn't enough to overhaul the Sparklers stronger top section with the Sparklers holding out for a 53-43 victory.

Standings after two weeks with the top two to qualify from each group are:

Monday Nights: Pumpkins 108 games, Bonfires 106, Toffees 105 (All 2 matches played), Conkers 33, Wizards 32 (Both 1 match played)

Wednesday Night: Firecrackers 122 games, Sparklers 103, Rockets 86, Bangers 73 (All 2 matches played)