Match Reports 30th - 5th May

Keswick and Braithwaite Tennis Club Report Week 30 April-6 May.

All of Keswick’s four tennis teams have been in action this week and it has been an exciting and enjoyable time despite very mixed results. In brief…the newly created Ladies’ Second Team turned in the best performance of the week with a fine victory on their debut in the league over Whitehaven 3; the Men’s seconds drew creditably against Seascale 2 and the Ladies’ First Team narrowly lost their First Division match against Lorton. The Men’s First Team came up against tough opposition and were subjected to a roasting at the hands of league champions Maryport. Insight from the team captains into these games follows…

Keswick Men's First Team faced Maryport 1 in their first away game of the season. A changed team from last week saw Ed Ma partnering Dougal Atack and Rob Moir playing alongside Rob Saxton. Keswick knew that this would be their toughest trial to date, however they retained a strong positivity. The two Robs faced break points in their opening service game due to an uncharacteristically weak performance on the Saxton serve which continued throughout the course of the evening. This, along with strong serving from Maryport and failure to win big points saw the first set slip away 2-6.

Keswick began the second set with more determination with our pair neck and neck with the Maryport duo. At four games all, supreme volleying and dominant baseline hitting from Rob Moir won a break point to go 5-4 ahead leaving Keswick serving for the set. However, Saxton continued to produce a weak serving display, serving multiple double faults, an abberation which resulted in a tie break. The tie break was nip and tuck and more Saxton errors resulted in the pair narrowly losing the decider and the set 5-6.

Meanwhile, Dougal and Ed faced an unorthodox Maryport pair, which to begin with upset the Keswick pair’s rhythm. However, majestic serving from Atack and an exceptional volleying display from Ma saw the first set proceed to four games all. This proved to be a crucial point in the set as the Maryport pair, relentlessly on the defense, took the set 4-6. Undismayed, Ed and Dougal remained upbeat and continued to play first-rate tennis but Maryport were hot on their heels, narrowly holding serve in each game to draw level and force a tie break to decide the set. Atack and Ma produced scintillating tennis to dominate the tiebreak and take the set 6-5.

This left Keswick trailing 1-3 at the halfway stage. Moir remained determined to win the next two sets despite virtually playing against three players as his partner Saxton continues to play atrocious tennis. The next two sets consisted of long rallies and superb baseline hitting from Moir but the Keswick pair narrowly missed out 4-6, 4-6.

Ed and Dougal started their first set against the next pair strongly with efficient tactics but a few key points going to the Maryport pair resulted in the first set slipping away 4-6. Despite dogged determination on the part of the Keswick pair Maryport also took the second set 2-6.

The team were highly frustrated by the manner in which the match slipped away from them as this was a match that could have easily been won by Keswick. However, they now look forward to their next outing against Lorton in a week’s time.

Keswick Men’s Second Team hosted Seascale seconds at Braithwaite on Wednesday in what turned out to be a match of two contrasting halves with our pairs struggling at the outset then coming back strongly in the second half of the match to force a well earned draw. Martin Pavlu and Filip Jencke, our more youthful first pairing, struggled against the opposition’s lively second pair and dropped a set against them while Pete Armstrong, partnering team captain Ian Hollinshead, had no answer to Seascale’s well coached first couple who seemed to be able to return every shot the home pair could muster with added interest. At the half way stage Keswick’s hopes of a win appeared increasingly fragile.

Despite trailing 1-3 at the break there was no despair, the setback seemed to fire the home team and things took a turn for the better with both Keswick’s pairings staging a spirited comeback. Ian, fresh from intensive training at tennis boot camp in Portugal and Pete, with his newly strung high powered racquet, destroyed their opponents in a gritty display that left the visitors with only two games to their credit from the last 2 sets. Martin and Filip needed to up their game against Seascales first pair and indeed they did so, taking both sets to tie-breaks and though they shared the honours in these tightly contested deciders they had done enough to deny the opposition a win. The result of the match was 4-4 in sets and when the games score was calculated the match was found to be drawn at 31-31. It was a very creditable performance by Keswick against a strong Seascale team.

Keswick Ladies’ First Team played their opening home match of the season in warm sunshine on Tuesday night. This was expected to be a tough match against the current division title holders Lorton. Keswick’s first pair, Clare Pinkney and Julie Saxton began the match against the opposition's first pair. They pressurised their opponents throughout the match, their consistently deep penetrating shots and interceptions at the net paying dividends and resulting in their winning both sets 6-2, 6-4.

Meanwhile Keswick's second pair Sally Huit and Rachel Bazire found it tricky to get into a rhythm and find a game plan to challenge the strong opposition's second pair and lost 1-6, 0-6.

In the second round of the match Clare and Julie faced the challenge of Lorton's canny court wise second pair, however good teamwork ensured the Keswick pairing stayed a step ahead of their opponents and brought them through to win both sets 6-4,

6-2.

Meanwhile Sally and Rachel played the first couple and despite many protracted games going to deuce, the match slipped away from them and ultimately they lost both sets 0-6, 1-6. Although the result was 4 sets all, Keswick lost the match on games 26 to 36. Their next match will be away to Whitehaven 1st and we are really hoping this glorious weather continues for what will be a tough confrontation.

It was a lovely first match for the Ladies’ Second Team. The weather was perfect, sunny but not too hot and although it was rather windy at least it blew in the right direction. Timmea Vismathy captained the team and was partnered by Alison Lightford; they were supported by our second pair, Janaki Spedding and Jane Ma.

Both of our pairs won their first two sets with ease; however the second pair struggled against Whitehaven's 1st pair and lost the first set 3-6. Although they managed to take the 2nd set to a tiebreak unfortunately they lost that too. Overall the evening's play was a great success with 44 points for the home team against 18 for Whitehaven. It was a very enjoyable evening and it was great to meet the ladies from Whitehaven 3.