In an extremely competitive match against Preston Park's second team last Sunday, our ladies first team achieved a hard-fought 3-1 win.

Gill Luis-Ravelo and Jo Chopping were ahead in both sets of their first rubber but finally succumbed 7-5, 7-5. On the adjoining court, Jane Hugo and Ros Parker had a battle royal with their opponents, complete with many tiring rallies and mostly deuce games, although the winning score of 6-3, 6-4 did not really paint the picture.

In the reverse rubbers, Gill and Jo raced away to take the first set 6-2 and then went behind in the second to lose that set by the same score. They went ahead early on in the championship tie-break and then fell behind as the opposing pair made up ground and forged ahead, only for our pair to win five points in a row to the take the tie-break and match 11-9.

Jane and Ros had another tough battle and, after taking the first set 6-4, went behind in the middle of the second set before roaring back to take the set and match 7-5.