Charnwood Ladies' first team slipped to a narrow loss away at Ashby Castle in their first match of the Leicestershire summer league season.
Teams of six have three doubles pairings, each playing three sets of tennis - first to eight games - with the hosts securing the narrowest possible victory by five sets to four.
For Charnwood, the first pairing of Emily Rodbourne and Holly Cheeseman won all three of their sets while Rachael Slaymaker and Bea Cooper picked up one set.
Caroline Wilkinson and Mary Nevill played some splendid tennis (including an extremely tight 8-6 defeat against Ashby’s second pair) but couldn't quite get Charnwood over the winning line.
Despite the narrow defeat, this was a great start to what will be a competitive season for Charnwood with eight more matches starting with a tough home fixture against Leicestershire A on Thursday 9 May.