Tennis latest from Badenoch and Strathspey
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The Rothiemurchus and Aviemore ladies A team has moved level, on 12, points with leaders Elgin in Division 1.
The bad news for them however is that the Elginians have two matches in hand.
The two teams are leading the way because Nairn, the defending champions, decided to cancel two matches resulting in the team having two points deducted for each infringement. R&A could be sitting on top of the table had they won their fixture at the Inverness Tennis & Squash Club.
Wendy Munro and Eve Wilkinson managed to defeat the homesters’ second couple 6-3, 7-5 but, other than that it was quite a dismal evening for the Aviemore women. The result puts Inverness on eleven points, one behind the leaders.
In Division 3 Highland, the club’s B team is sitting top on 20 points with the third string three points behind in second place. The former maintained their top position when Nairn C conceded, whereas the latter slipped up in their match at Tain. The gap between the two Rothiemurchus sides is beginning to lengthen.
Also in the Ladies league, Division 2 leaders Kingussie came through a toughly contested match in Inverness with all three points intact. First pair, Helen Peebles & Marjorie Deans set the Badenochers up with 6-3, 6-4 and 6-2, 7-6 victories. Second pair Michelle McCormick & Moira Webster had one thing on their mind – win at least one set from their two rubbers as that would put their team in an unassailable lead.
However their first outing, against the Inverness top seeds, proved a tad too difficult and resulted in a 6-2, 6-2 loss. It was all down to the final, 2v2 contest. McCormick & Webster managed to break serve at 3-3 and managed to hold on to take the first set and, more importantly, ensured their team retained the top spot in the fight for promotion.
Kingussie men continued the objective of catching up with Lossiemouth, overtaking them and gain promotion .
The Grantown club is having a poor season by its standards. In the women’s first Division the Strathspeyers moved off the bottom spot but only because of the points taken away from Nairn.
The Men are also in the doldrums, sitting bottom of Division 2 and not looking like they will be able to prevent relegation. The Ladies B team is bucking the trend, sitting in second position they are a hefty eight points behind Rothes.
The Highland Mixed Division is finally underway and the pace is being set by R&A B. Their latest contest was a 6-2 win over Kingussie. There was, in essence, no close rubbers. But games won do not tell the story of how close each game was.
In truth, many games reached deuce, indeed multiple deuces in some instances. That little fact should be borne in mind when reading the details of the match: Caroline Bashford & Dougie Somerville beat Michelle McCormick & Sandy Peebles 6-3, 6-1; beat Christine Sutherland & Thijs Claes 6-3, 6-1. LJ Fishpool & Gavin Musgrove lost 2-6, 2-6; won 6-3, 6-1
Ladies
Division 1
Inverness A 6 R&A 2
Division 2
Inverness B 4 Kingussie 5
Division 3 Highland
Nairn C 0 R&A B 5 (w/o)
R&A C 6 Bellfield Park 3
Division 3 Moray & Strathspey
Lossiemouth 6 Grantown 3
Men
Division1
Bellfield Park 8 Grantown 0
Division 2
Kingussie 5 Gordonstoun 0
Division 3
R&A 8 Elgin D 0
Mixed
Division 1
Elgin B 5 R&A 5
Division 3 Highland
R&A B 6 Kingussie 2
Bellfield Park 8 Newtonmore 2
