Match Reports Week 11 to 17June

Keswick and Braithwaite Tennis Club Report Week 11 June to 17 June

Devotees of the Reminder’s tennis column will have noticed the absence of a reportlast week, a situation owed to a complete lack of any tennis to report on. The highly unseasonable weather resulted in the cancellation of all the club’s match fixtures and washed out our club nights too! The weather has been kinder to tennis this week and despite more rain causing the ladies second team to postpone their match the ladies’ firsts and both our men’s teams were able to play their matches.

It was not a good week for our men’s teams who both came up against tough opposition and lost to teams who currently head their respective divisions The 2nd team went down 8-0 to a youthful and talented Seascale, while the 1st team fared a little better against Maryport, losing 5-3 in a tightly contested match which was a very creditable performance against the strongest team in the league.

The club’s best result this week was provided by Keswick ladies’ first team who played away against Lorton. Due to absences there were some changes to the team so Julie Saxton partnered student Anna Hollinshead, who was playing her first match for the ladies’ firsts, it proved to be a fortuitous combination of youth and experience. They were supported by Ali Lightford and Sally Huit who were paired up as our second couple. Lorton first team are currently riding high in the league table above Keswick who are in third place so our ladies knew that a tough match was in prospect.

In their first encounter Ali and Sal chose to play on the Astroturf surface and had a close match sharing the sets 4-6 and 6-4. Julie and Anna lost their first set 3-6 and then took the second set to a very tightly contested tiebreak which they won 10-8 so at the halfway stage it was 2 sets apiece with only 2 games difference. At this crucial moment unfortunately the skies darkened and the rain came down in torrents, looking to be set in, but with plenty more daylight available the teams waited for a while for the rain to abate whereupon everyone agreed to try to finish the match.

At the restart Sal and Ali had a close first set which they lost narrowly 4-6, then unfortunately they let the second set slip away 0-6 as their opponents focussed their play. The situation at this point was that Lorton were leading 4 sets to 2 which left Julie and Anna with an uphill task. But our girls were up for it and Julie and Anna were determined to come out on top. They took the first set 6-0 and then the second one 6-2 despite more rain which caused concern due to the uncertainty of the surface under foot.

At the end of a long evening after several nerve-racking recounts the scores were agreed to add up to 4 sets apiece and 35 games apiece too, so it was a draw, which meant a point each on the table and smiles all round.