Last Sunday, the men’s Sussex League team travelled to Meads (in Eastbourne) and despite battling hard on the Astroturf courts against a competent second team, they suffered a 3-1 loss.

In the first set of rubbers, Steve Parry and Harry Stubbs fought well against the opposition’s second pair to take the win 6-2, 6-2. While captain, David Tomsett and Dan York struggled to come to terms with the surface against the first pair in a 6-1, 6-0 loss.

In the reverse rubbers, David and Dan thought they should have beaten the second pair but the surface caused them to hit long and lose vital deuce games, as they went down 6-3, 6-1. Steve and Harry played well against the first pair but lost 6-1, 6-4.

“It was great to be able to put out four players and had we played them at home the result may well have been in our favour”, said David Tomsett, Men’s Sussex League Captain.

This was the men’s third match of the season, having already earned an away draw against Amherst’s third team in their first match with just one pair available - Steve Parry and Harry Stubbs. It was the same story in the second match of the season, in that just the same pair were available. They gamely took on both pairs from Meads’ first team, and despite an extremely close fought second rubber, lost in a championship tie-break – the result was a 4-0 loss.