A turnaround for the Ladies this week with a clean sweep across the board with four wins!

First Ladies 8–2 win against Central: Brought a strong team to play on Friday evening (arriving early) we started bang on time. Mandy Baldwin/Francesca Beg played the strong A pair and performed fantastically whilst Sarah Dawe/Alex Hull took on the second pair and also won in straight sets. Mandy and Ces cruised through their remaining match. Overall 8–2 win.

Second Ladies 6–4 win v David Lloyd (Bristol): it was a drive across Bristol to the dreaded David Lloyd carpets for the Seconds on Friday evening. Sarah

Alexander/Lucy Burminham played great solid tennis against a really consistent opposition and rattled up the game count, winning their first and losing the second. Rachel Gibbs/Louise Derrick pairing for the first time this season didn’t fare quite as well games wise, but enjoyed the matches, again winning one and losing one. The great game count from Sarah and Lucy meant we managed to snatch a 6–4 win followed by drinks after with our opposition.

Third Ladies 6–4 win v Clifton: playing on courts at Chilcompton the partnership of Mandy Stonier/Catherine Brand was too strong for the first pair, winning in less than an hour 6–0,6–1. On the next court, Jacqui Grainger/Jenny Perez were grinding out a lengthy battle, sadly losing it in three sets. In the reverse matches the rain started coming down and the light was going, but both pairs carried on – again, Jacqui and Jenny lost out to their opponents, but Mandy/Catherine managed to win in a third set championships tiebreak, finishing at 10.10 pm but with the total set score of 5–5, Somer Valley squeezed the win 6–4 on game countback. Phew!

Fourth Ladies 8–2 win v Hanham Ladies 4ths travelled to Hanham hoping for a better result than the 4–6 loss in the previous fixture.

Tracey Stephen, playing with daughter, Cerys, lost the first set quite convincingly, then took the second on a tie break and won the championship tie break third set, 10–4. The second rubber followed a very similar pattern, but we won the second set 7–5 after being 5–2 down. We then won the championship tie break, 10–6. The second pair of Nicki and Luce worked even harder. Their first rubber went 7–6, 6–7, 10–8 and the second 5–7, 6–4, 11–9. A very long night, not finishing until 10.20 pm, but a satisfying result of 8–2.

The Men’s teams: Luis Jauregui/Ewan Allman came close but couldn’t close off. With third placed Backwell beating top-of-the-table Almondsbury 10–0, we are now an outside bet for promotion.

The Seconds won 10–0 – Cleeve Hill sent a woefully poor team who managed just eight games all evening against a Somer Valley team boasting the deft skills of Tom Hunt and stalwarts, Ollie McGee, Darren Thompson and Andy Jeffery.

With rivals Bishop Sutton losing 10–0 to Olveston, only Downend and Olveston have a theoretical chance of beating us to promotion, and they play each other next week!

The Thirds lost 6–4, despite Graham Steer’s injured hamstring and rib, and Adam Benney’s lack of match practice, this new pairing managed to win both their rubbers, one of which was a tight champ tiebreak – great stuff!

James Brocksopp/Sam Harris had a disappointing evening, but nearly managed to overcome Portishead’s B pair in the second rubber.

The Fifths lost 10–0 – Downend sent three players who have played against our Seconds this season, so this defeat was not a surprise. However, Mike Cuthbert/Richard Hood came very close to winning both their rubbers, so huge credit to them.

Tom Craig/ Neil Scott battled away, but couldn’t get over the line.