No Clay in Denise’s Shoes
Blending her keen fitness standards with a spell of on-court confidence Denise Clay has enjoyed an excellent start to her East Hants League campaign. Representing Graffham Ladies B in Division 4 at Medstead Denise was partnered by Annie Dennig and they won three from four rubbers. Sarah Jeffries and Kate Hogan were a little disappointing in winning just one rubber. However, it is never easy to win at Medstead and we will take the 4-4 draw as a satisfactory start to the season. Annie and Denise combined well, with the former complimenting her partner on a fine performance.
Ropley at home were our next opponents in Division 4, and unfortunately they could only muster one pair, which meant we were gifted a 4-0 start. Whereas the Ropley pair had four rubbers to complete our Ladies had only two. First pair up were Sarah Jeffries and Nikki Sanders and their blend of experience and talented youth has worked well on a few occasions. This was no exception as they comfortably took both sets. Denise teamed up with Susie Oakley, who can never be accused of holding back on her shots. This match up proved a little harder, but Denise’s speed around the court and some intermittently excellent shot-making by Susie was enough to clinch matters, and reward us with an 8-0 win.
In the Division 3 of the Mixed league our journey to Ropley was not in vain, as once again the North Hampshire side were subjected to an 8-0 defeat. We cannot keep Denise out of the news, this time she teamed up with husband Beetle, and they were supported by another strong pairing in Andrew Wilson-Smith and Sarah Jeffries.
Also in the Mixed league we hosted Fernhurst at the recreation ground, and fielded a very strong team. Andrew Wilson-Smith and Emma Amin are probably our strongest duo, and easily swept aside the opposition winning all four rubbers 6-1. It was not quite such plain sailing for Andy Craig and Sian Green who lost their first two rubbers 6-2, 7-6, but bounced back in style in the next two with 6-0, 6-2 score lines. This fine start puts us top of the Division early doors.
Our newly formed Men’s squad started well at Buriton and secured a 4-4 draw. Richard Gyles had the luxury of the talented Ollie Sanders as his partner, and they landed all four rubbers. It was a learning curve for Jeeva and Simon Longman, they thoroughly enjoyed the experience, and will do better.
The only defeat in the early stages of the season was inflicted upon our Ladies A team by Headley in Division 2. The 5-3 away defeat from a side who were in Division 1 last year was no disgrace, especially as Dinah Lamming was suffering a knee injury. She was partnered by the ever consistent Anna Moore, but they could only win one rubber. The other two were won by the proven combination of Sarah Jeffries and Nikki Sanders. Headley had a very strong number one pair, so a draw would have been the most we could have achieved. There is much better to come from our A squad, who will certainly win plenty of matches in their bid for promotion.
Watch this space for more East Hants League reports.
Mike Dimmer.