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Last Monday night saw the halfway stage reached in the Enniskillen Autumn Tennis League and with pool leaders Pumpkins not playing this week the unbeaten Toffees were looking to narrow the 65 game gap at the top. Standing in their way were Martin Sharkey's Wizards who have, so far this campaign, struggled to find the magic ingredients despite having a very experienced team.
With early games vital for their confidence the Wizards were looking for top pairing Innes Redmond and Helen Cooper to hit top form but with Susannah Hughes Jordan deputising alongside Toffees Captain Paul Lendrum it was the Toffees who struck first playing with power and accuracy and winning the match 9-3 The tone had been set and the well balanced pairing of Donal Burns and Ann Elliott immediately followed this up with another impressive 9-3 victory leaving the Wizards in early trouble. As in previous matches the best defence came from the mixed pairing of Garth Armstrong and Bennie Sheridan who managed to record the Wizards only win in the eight matches played. However even Garth playing in the men's doubles with John Quinn had no answer to the Toffees pairing of James Burns and Matt Dillon going down 10-2 and leaving the out of sorts Wizards out of touch with three games to go. Ultimately the Toffees won 57-39 leaving them trailing the Pumpkins by a mere 8 games with a full4 rounds to go.
Prior to this, hopes were high for the Bonfires that they would easily overcome the winless Conkers and keep their chances of the second qualifying place alive. The Conkers however were not reading the script and fought tooth and nail to secure 6-6 draws in six out of eight matches in the tie. This meant that the overall result hinged on the top tier mixed doubles and men's doubles. As with the Toffees it was the young and highly talented substitutes that made the difference as Conor Donaldson partnered Bonfires regulars Louise McGann to an 8-4 win in the mixed and John Reihill to the ultimately telling 9-3 win in the men's leaving the overall adjusted score at 50-46 in favour of the Bonfires.
Wednesday night and after a titanic struggle in the previous round against the runaway Firecrackers, the Bangers were hoping to mark the eve of Bonfire night with their first win. This weeks opponents were the Sparklers who themselves were hoping to relight their early season form and regain second spot in the group. As in their previous match the Bangers top pairing of Davy Thompson and Bernie Hall played superbly to outscore the usually dominant pairing of Matthew McGann and Heather Boles and give the Bangers a perfect 7-5 opening lead, However this was to prove a false dawn for the Bangers as they heavily lost two of the remaining 3 mixed doubles and trailed 29-19 going into the men's and ladies doubles. At this stage with the weather beginning to deteriorate the Sparklers were well in control and despite losing the top ladies match to the determined Bernie Hall playing with team captain Ruth Armstrong the match had became a struggle for the Bangers. Again it was down to the top scoring Brian Donaldson who contributed a massive 20 points to the Sparklers 58-38 win with two 10-2 victories partnered firstly with Lisa Greaves and latterly with Martin Hamblin.
Second match on the night had table topping Firecrackers looking to repeat their early season 16 game victory over nearest rivals Rockets but with the rain gradually saturating the courts and making the bounce of the ball impossible to read there was a better chance of an impromptu Cliff Richard sing song than this match finishing, This meant that every game in the mixed doubles was vital. Steven Miller and Josie Gillen picked up where they left off in the previous week and opened proceedings with a convincing 8-4 win for the Rockets over stand in sub Jimmy Renfrew and Bernadette Cornyn and after the middle two matches ended in a 7-5 victory for the Firecrackers Hugh Maguire and Andrea Crawford, cancelled out by a 7-5 victory for the Rockets Reggie Ferguson and Bridie McCaffrey everything rested on the last mixed match. Needing to win by more than 4 games Neville Crawford and Mary Davidson for the Firecrackers showed their greater experience in handling extreme wet weather and went on to win the match 9-3. With the scores now 25-23 in favour of the Firecrackers but with the torrential rain making the courts unplayable the two captains were unfortunately left with no choice but to split the remaining four matches 6-6 and declare the result 49-47 to the Firecrackers. While nobody was happy with the weather induced cancellations, at least Cliff didn't show up.
Standings after week 5 with the top two to qualify from each group are:
Monday Nights: Pumpkins 226 games, Toffees 218, Bonfires 199, Conkers 161 and Wizards 156 (all 4 matches played)
Wednesday Night: Fircrackers 282 games, Sparklers 244, Rockets 236, Bangers 198 (All 5 matches played)