Galbraith Highland Tennis Leagues reach the half-way mark
The first half of the men’s and women’s Galbraith Highland Tennis leagues has been reached with most of the sides from clubs in the strath faring well.
Women
Grantown’s A team is currently lying in third place in Division 2 - just one point adrift of second place Rothes A who are three points behind Elgin’s second string.
The combo’s latest outing culminated in the 8-0 thrashing of the Inverness Tennis & Squash Club (ITSC).
The ladies made short work of the proceedings, dropping only four games in the eight sets played.
The team comprised Lindsay Tinney, Mandy Davidson, Paula Starritt and Fiona Reynolds.
The B team had high hopes of promotion. Going into their fifth match of the season they were sitting just two points behind leaders Forres A.
They travelled 66 miles to play the bottom of the league Tain and were defeated 8-1 for their effort. A four point gap has now opened up.
The Grantown ladies B team have it all to do in the remaining fixtures if they want to finish in top spot.
Kingussie
The first team has had a nightmare start in their quest to stay in Division 1.
They are sitting in sixth place, yet to win a match, and are losing ground on fifth pace ITSC ‘B’.
The Badenoch quartet, staring relegation in the face, really have it all to do if last place is to be avoided.
The B team is involved in a real fight in Division 4, with just three points separating the top four sides.
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If they get the breaks in their next five fixtures they could well be in contention for the promotion place.
Newtonmore
Staying in Badenoch, 2025 marks the entrance of the club to the women’s league, and they are putting on a good show.
The team, led by Zoe Ettle, is one point clear of near neighbours Kingussie, and two behind the joint leaders.
Rothiemurchus & Aviemore
R&A have dropped to third position in the topflight.
In their latest encounter they came up against the youngsters from Bellfield Park in Inverness.
One of the visitors usual quartet was missing, with Tennis Scotland’s new vice president, Aida Isa, substituting. This was really a game of two halves.
The first round was evenly matched with the ladies taking the 1v1 rubber 4-6, 5-7. The 2v2 contest was decided by the championship (third set) tie-break.
Jo Evans and Fiona McLaren raced ahead to take the first set 6-1, and looked set to tie the first round.
However, their opponents fought back in good style to level the rubber. The first to 10 decider was then won by the hosts by 10-6 points.
However, that second set loss was to prove crucial. Round two saw Eve Wilkinson and Wendy Munro decisively win 6-3-6-0, whilst the Bellfield top pair strode to a 2v1 (6-0, 6-0) whitewash.
The R& A seconds also met the Bellfield club, but, on this occasion, as visitors. The team lie bottom of Division 2, having lost all of their matches.
The foursome will be hoping for better outcomes in the remaining five matches.
The third string played two matches last week, winning both with thumping scorelines.
At home to Gordonstoun, the ladies recorded an 8-0 drubbing of the school pupils. They followed that, on Thursday, with a journey to meet Rothes B, and they finished the week with another impressive win (8-1).
The ladies are joint leaders on 13 points with Nairn B.
Men
Grantown
Without their main players, Andrew McLeod and Matthew (Bob) Davies, the As were up against it.
The two pairs fought valiantly but, at the end of the day, succumbed to the visiting Forres team by 8-1.
The seconds’ trip ended with a heavy loss, by a similar scoreline, against Rothes.
Kingussie
The men’s team are sitting on nine points, along with two other teams, just one point off the bottom spot.
The team was lying third going into the match at Bellfield but their trip to the city was not fruitful, losing out 6-3.
The Invernessians, who had been the bottom side, now move up level with Kingussie.
Rothiemurchus and Aviemore
The men’s A team are currently top of Division 2 abnd have yet to lose a match this campaign.
Emil Mirrosay and Paul Singleton had a relatively easy evening, winning 6-2, 6-3 against Tain’s first pair, following up with a resounding 6-0, 6-1 victory over their seconds.
The host’s Gavin Musgrove and Paul Michaelwaite had a more testing evening.
The second visiting pair took them to championship tie-break which the Aviemore pair lost in what turned out to be a very competitive affair (10-8 points).
But they then defeated the visitors’ number ones, 6-3, 7-5 for an overall 7-2 victory.
R&A B lost out 8-1 away to Elgin C in a top of the table clash with the closest game seeing Bryan Davidson and Luis Sator prevailing against the R&A visitors’ first pair Karl Thurlow and Nick Morgan 6-4, 3-6, 10-6.
