Wednesday 18th May
Mens 4th Team - East of Scotland League Division 9; Week 5
St Serf's Men's Fourths posted their first win of the season with a 9-3 success over Merchiston Thirds. The Fourths bounced back from an agonising defeat to rivals Lomond Park the previous week by grinding out victory from a series of tight sets against their Polwarth-based opponents.
The game was officially a “away” tie for St Serf's but was switched to Clark Road as new courts are laid at Merchi.
A clean sweep of sets in their respective opening rubbers saw top pairing Neil Gallagher and James Warren (6-3, 6-2) beat their Merchi counterparts and No.2 couple Brian Pendreigh and Graeme Watson (6-3, 6-4) overcome their third-seed opponents to open up a 4-0 lead. A long-running battle between Alex Schweitzer-Thompson and Jack Allan and their Merchi No.2 opponents eventually yielded a share of two sets. Fifteen-year-old Allan, a late replacement for Alexander Chong Kwan, posted a success rate of around 70 per cent from his powerful first serve to contribute greatly to a 6-3 win for Saints in the opening set before a 4-6 reverse in the second against C. Heaney and D. McAllister. The time deadline meant the St Serf's third couple played just one further rubber, which resulted in defeat to Merchi's top pair.
Gallagher and Warren swept to a 6-0, 6-3 win amid some relentless rallies in their second game, against J. Marr and K. Taylor.
Pendreigh and Watson kept the sizeable Court 1 crowd entertained with a solid, hard-fought 6-2, 6-4 triumph over Merchi's second seeds. Merchiston began the season with a heavy win over Corstorphine, who, in turn, recently drew 6-6 with Grange Dyvours. The three Ds – Dalkeith 1, Dalgety Bay 2, and David Lloyd Newhaven – continue to dominate the Dunlop East of Scotland Men's Division 9 league. Grange are the next visitors to St Serf's, with the match starting at 6.30pm next Wednesday, May 25th. All welcome to attend!
The team appreciates the encouragement shown by members of the best-supported club (we've come across) in Edinburgh and wishes to thank all who came along, namely Gerry Reilly, Jennifer Somerville, Ruth Davis, RD Miller, Mark Gaffney, Lynn Calder, and Alex Salmean.
Sunday 8th May
Boys U14 Team - Aegon East of Scotland League
St Serfs boys under 14 team kick started the season with a narrow defeat to local rivals Lomond Park, with the tie leveled at 6 rubbers each, a shoot out championshipo tie break resulted in Lomond Park earning the spoils. The team consiste of Jonathan Sinclair, Struan Mclean, Lewis Ajodani, and newcomer Callum Watson. Congratualtions to the boys for 4 hours of entertaining tennis.
Wednesday 4th May
Mens 4th Team - East of Scotland League Division 9; Week 3
St Serf's 2011 Men's Fourth team made its competitive debut in leafy Midlothian and will be glad to have a fixture against Division 9 favourites Dalkeith behind them. Despite failing to claim a set before the 8.45pm watershed, a visiting team hastily assembled due to unavailability of practice regulars won nearly a third (29.7%) of games played. Top St Serf's seeds David Hogg and James Warren showed early promise in both of their opening sets, going 4-2 and 4-1 up respectively against their Dalkeith No.1 counterparts only to surrender their advantage on both occasions. After a dispiriting loss, the pair were then defeated by Dalkeith's second seeds. Two father and son pairings took to the courts, with the all-McLean duo of Alistair and young Struan from St Serf's putting up a good show while Dalkeith captain Frank Nisbet and offspring contributed greatly to Dalkeith's victory (the hosts achieved an aggregate score of 64 games to 27). Struan was noteable for his relentless energy, running and enthusiasm, chasing down seemingly lost causes to keep his old man in contention time and time again! The McLeans notched seven games altogether and will hope to build on their flashes of great form in the coming weeks.
In an effort to ensure as many St Serfers as possible shared at least one part of their name with their partner, Alexes Schweitzer-Thompson and Chong Kwan paired up and developed an increasingly fruitful understanding on the court after having never played in the company of each other previously. 'Team Alex' triumphed in eight games and regretted that, due to lack of time, they weren't able to pit their wits against their fellow third seeds.
After its travails on a blaise court that rarely offered a true bounce, the Men's Fourths team will take comfort from the fact that they can properly 'start' their season with three consecutive home games in as many weeks. That sequence kicks off with a derby against Lomond Park next Wednesday, where the Fourths will aim to repeat last year's success again their local rivals. FORZA FOURTHS! (Match report - Alex Schweitzer-Thompson)
Tuesday 26th April
Ladies 2nd Team - East of Scotland League Division 4; Week 2
Ladies 2nds report is that we beat Aberdour 1 by 5 rubbers to 4 (7 sets to 5) We had delicious match tea, thanks especially to Catriona for her fab carrot cake ... thanks too to all the Gaffneys, Jack, Angela and Jacqueline who came down to support us ...!
Thursday 21st April
Ladies 3rd Team - East of Scotland League Division 5; Week 1
Team Photo, match v David Lloyd.
Tuesday 19th April
Ladies 1st Team - East of Scotland League Division 3B; Week 1
Our first match was away at Drummond and therefore we did not manage to get our match finished. We still have 5 “rubbers” to play with the final score on the night being 4-0 to us in “rubbers”. We were unable to finish as the light gave out and with only 2 courts and no floodlights we were put at a disadvantage and have to reschedule matches for all players. There was some confusion over how the new scoring system works and so we thought we were finished in sets but realised later that this is not how the matches are now scored. There was also a good following of members who attended and we thank them for the great support which they provided to both us and the 2nd team who had a great victory. I will provide an update when the results of this match are finally known!! 1. Hannah Watson & Jennifer Somerville. 2. Hazel Reid & Jane McLean. 3. Emma Todd & Ruth Davis. (Report E Todd).
Monday 18th April
Mens 1st Team - East of Scotland League Division 1: Week 1
Our first league fixture saw us making the trip up to Braid Tennis Club in the shadow of Blackford Hill, with the team looking forward to renewing our acquaintance with Division One – despite our last sojourn there returning us to Division Two at the first time of asking, pointless. It would appear a pretty daunting first fixture – away to the current Division One Champions – but our enthusiasm was not to be curbed. There is certainly a noticeable difference in pace and quality from Division 2 and all in all I felt our team coped admirably. It’s a challenge to be embraced, playing at this level and it says much about the team’s performance that we came away from the first round slightly disappointed only to be tied at 3 sets a piece. We maintained our positive attitude heading into Round 2 however despite a few close sets we suffered a 5-1 round reversal making the final score 8-4 for Braid. This level is very unforgiving and you notice not many second-chances come your way over the course of a match. All-in-all I was pleased with our performance and thought we competed extremely well in a difficult first fixture and we look forward to opening our home account against Thistle next week. Another sterling performance by the St Serf’s Barmy Army who turned out in force - outnumbering the Braid support by six to one. It definitely gives the team a massive boost seeing our fellow members turning out in such numbers. Team: 1. Mark Gaffney & Neil Harden; 2. Vincent Hivert & Matt Davies; 3. Dave Gaffney & Richard D Miller. (Report - M Gaffney)
Wednesday 13th April
Mens 1st team - Scottish Cup – East of Scotland Stage
The last 16 stage of the Scottish Cup East of Scotland section threw up many a local derby, including St Serf’s welcoming our friends from round the corner Lomond Park. We were eager to start the season with a flyer and fortunately found ourselves 3-0 after the first round thanks to strong wins on all three courts from our team. A similar second round followed and we ended up extremely satisfied with a 6-0 overall win against an admittedly under-strength Lomond side. We look forward to playing David Lloyds Newhaven in the quarter-finals on Wednesday 27th April at St Serf’s where we hope home advantage can help us through to the semi-finals. As ever, a large and vociferous crowd came down to support us and this is always a huge boost to the team to see such numbers cheering us on. Please always feel free to come along and watch if you wish, you will be made very welcome. Team: 1. Mark Gaffney & Neil Harden; 2. Vincent Hivert & Matt Davies; 3. Dave McLean & Richard D Miller. (Report - M Gaffney)
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Team Reports
