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We will be doing a club tournament again this year. Let the match secretary (aka Steve) know if you wish to enter singles/doubles/mixed. The finals day will be on Sunday 26th September. You would need to be available then and also to be reasonably available to play the heats in the weeks preceding. More details of the heats when we know who wants to play. Final date for entries 30th June.

Who has Entered ?

Despite heavy rain during the day, on Monday 17th May both the mens and ladies sides were in action.

Men: home to Tavistock C. Players, Dave and Dave, Phil and Ian. The score was 35 for Plymstock and 55 for Tavistock.

Women: away to Menheniot B. Players Jess and Anne, Nicky and Jane. The score was 39 for Plymstock and 54 for Menheniot.

The men started late because one of the Tavistock pairs confused Plympton with Plymstock. This sort of thing appears quite common and none of the matches has yet finished in full daylight.

For the ladies…match was on, match was off, on … The weather was making it a very difficult decision for the Menheniot team captain but in the end we went ahead with playing, which was the correct decision as it turned out to be a better evening than expected. ( Well, just one 10/15 minute rain interval). Everyone raised their game on the night and had some good rallying, volleying and hard hitting moments. Jess and Jane had a thrilling third set tie break which they won 16-14 whilst Anne and Nicky gave Menheniots second pair an exciting game clinching the win on a tie break in the second set. A really great evening of tennis with a very friendly Menheniot team. We are looking forward to the return match on home ground in July.

Results P and D League 2021

Mens

Players – Tim Randell (TR), Chris King (CK), Pete Brownlow (PB), Steve Maller (SM), Dave Bate (DB), Dave Roberts (DR), Phil Hughes (PH), Ian Cload (ID), Dudley Tolkien (DT)

Date	Fixture		Players	Plymstock Points	Opposition Points
10th May	St Mellion	Away	TR CK PB SM	44	39
17th May	Tavistock C	Home	DB DR PH IC	35	55
24th May	St Budeaux	Home	CK DB TR DT	52	41
11th June	Hill Lane B	Away	TR DR PH DB	39	61
14th June	Ivybridge C	Home	TR SM DB DR	56	43
28th June	St Mellion	Home	CK DB TR SM	72	13
5th July	Tavistock C	Away	TR DT DB CK	55	43
16th July	St Budeaux	Away	TR PH DB SM	67	34
19th July	Hill Lane B	Home	TR DR DB CK	56	42
29th July	Ivybridge C	Away	TR IC DB DR	50	44

The Final Mens Table

Ladies

Players – Di Townsend (DT), Vicky Roberts (VR), Jess Randell (JR), Jane Williams (JW), Nicky Slight (NS), Anne Hughes (AH)

Date	Fixture		Players	Plymstock Points	Opposition Points
11th May	Hill Lane B	Home	DT VR JR JW	27	71
17th May	Menheniot B	Away	JR JW NS AH	39	54
7th June (rearranged)	Plympton D	Home	JR AH NS VR	56	28
8th June	Yelverton C	Home	JR DT NS VR	63	24
15th June	Looe C	Away	AH DT JR JW	59	48
2nd July	Hill Lane B	Away	AH DT JR VR	59	33
6th July	Menheniot B	Home	NS VR DT JW	16	72
14th July	Plympton D	Away	AH VR DT JW	46	48
22nd July	Yelverton C	Away		(*)
27th July	Looe C	Home		(**)

The Final Ladies Table

(*) Team members isolating, we had to cancel.

(**) This match happened. Did not receive a match report.

The clubs ladies returned to league tennis on Tuesday for the first time in many years. The opponents were Hill Lane (B). There was some very heavy rain during the afternoon but it cleared in time. As with the mens match the previous evening, the fixture went on into dusk, this one clocked as finishing at ten past nine.

Our first match of the season after many years absence from the league, brought on some nerves from those who had not played in the Summer league before.There were some closely fought matches with Jane and Jess taking all 3 sets to tie breaks against the visitors second team. Di and Vicky, playing together for the first time, had some great games which belied their final results. We may have lost but we had a team out, had some competitive tennis and most importantly had a very enjoyable evening.

The first points of the season : 27 to Plymstock, 71 to Hill Lane.

The men played their first league match of 2021 away to St Mellion on Monday night. The first plan was to split up our strongest two players (Tim and Chris) in order to, win or lose, have more even games. Sadly that didn’t happen as the two weakest players travelled in the same car and one of them needed to get away early and one of the opposition arrived late. Hence it was Tim and Chris who easily won both their matches and Steve and Pete who easily lost both their matches.

The Scorecard

We scored 44pts to St Mellion’s 39

During this season there will be much mixing of the mens squad such that, on any given evening, a new person might have to act as team captain. A volunteer will be needed to take charge on the day. Here is a crib sheet for stuff that needs to be done ..

Home matches

Two tubes of official league balls need to be provided. Get these balls to someone in the team for the evening.

Turn up before start time, if possible, so that, if opposition arrive 10 minutes early, they are not left standing in the field. Starting times for matches are 6:15pm. There are penalties in the rules for arriving after 30 minutes late. Unless the opposition have previously applied this penalty to us, or perhaps have not turned up at all, I would ask that we do not apply these penalties. It is only a game and there’s nothing much at stake apart from the joy of playing.

Allow some warm up before play starts.

Contact details for opposition need to be available in case, for instance, of cancelling for bad weather. Someone on our team needs to have a phone that they will be able to answer in case the opposition get lost, stuff in traffic, can’t raise a side, etc.

Put out the score boards.

Advise opposition on use of club house. (Kitchen, toilets, inside or out, whatever our rules are on the day.) If club house and kitchen in use we usually provide some squash to drink.

After the score sheet is filled in and signed (see below), take photo. Put in stamped, addressed envelope (on table). POST IT.

All matches

Turn up on time ! (Usually 6:15pm, away matches might be 6:30pm for ladies) However, if going to be late, let people know and we will try to smooth things over with the opposition. Usually possible.

Agree who is number one pair, who is number two, and, with opposition, order of play, e.g. top pairs against second pairs to start, or not. The away side have the right to choose such things if they wish.

Agree that we understand the rules. Full deuces. First to six games but tie break at 5-5, two sets, 10 point tie break to decide winners if one set each.

Take some photos of the action, if possible. Very useful for social media and website but easier said than done. I usually take a picture during warm up.

If it rains halfway through and you have to abandon, if two matches have not finished then nothing counts to the points and the game is replayed another day. If two matches have been played the points will stand for all completed sets.

At the end, take care filling in the score sheet. Enter the game scores in sets one and two. In the column for set three enter 6-0 for the winning pair. (Not the tie break score but you can put that in brackets). Get the names of players on the sheet. Get captains signatures. Take picture of score sheet and email it to the match secretary. If home match then ensure it is posted.

Official Rules

The formal rules document for 2021 (Word, opens in new window)

Plymouth and District League Matches 2021

Teams home match days shown in brackets.

Division 4 Men

Teams

• Plymstock (Mon)
• Ivybridge C (Thurs)
• St. Mellion (Mon)
• Hill Lane B (Fri)
• Tavistock C (Mon)
• St. Budeaux C (Fri)

Date	Home/Away	Opponents
Mon 10th May	Away	St Mellion
Mon 17th May	Home	Tavistock C
Mon 24th May	Home	St Budeaux
Fri 11th June	Away	Hill Lane B
Mon 14th June	Home	Ivybridge C
Mon 28th June	Home	St Mellion
Mon 5th July	Away	Tavistock
Fri 16th July	Away	St Budeaux
Mon 19th July	Home	Hill Lane B
Thu 29th July	Away	Ivybridge C

Division 5 Ladies

Plymstock Ladies play home matches on Tuesdays

Teams

• Looe C (Tue)
• Yelverton C (Thurs)
• Menheniot B
• Hill Lane B (Fri)
• Plympton D (Wed)
• Plymstock (Tues)

Date	Home/Away	Opponents
Tue 11th May	Home	Hill Lane B
Mon 17th May	Away	Menheniot B
Tue 25th May	Home	Plympton D
Tue 8th June	Home	Yelverton C
Tue 15th June	Away	Looe C
Fri 2nd July	Away	Hill Lane B
Tue 6th July	Home	Menheniot B
Wed 14th July	Away	Plympton D
Thu 22nd July	Away	Yelverton C
Tue 27th July	Home	Looe C

Match Format

Matches are the best of 3 sets.

The first two sets have a 7 point tie break at 5-5.

If a rubber is tied one set each, a 10-point tie break will be played to determine the winning pair.

Scoring is one point for every game won, plus a 6-point bonus for the winning pair.

Starting Times

For season 2021 only, starting times for matches will normally be 6:15pm, however, there will be no penalty until 6.30pm.

Sunday 6th June – Save the Date !

This is a round-robin mixed pairs event with the twist that for each group of 4 players you play with your normal partner, then against them, and accumulate an individual score.

The tournament is a club tradition – held in memory of Roy Gibbs who sadly died playing for Plymstock in a league match in 1975 – which we had to skip last year and so are holding early in the season this time.

There is an to attempt to get roughly equal strength pairs. The exact details of the rules depend on the number of entrants. For both those reasons we need to know who wishes to play. Please will club members who wish to compete let the match secretary know by Sunday 23rd May.

Start time will be 1pm.

There are pictures and a write up of the last time this event was played.

During this summer the Wednesday club sessions will start at 4pm. We expect these sessions to last long enough for those arriving after work to find plenty of company when they arrive and we can keep going into the evening. See you there !

To celebrate the very first afternoon when we can play tennis again, we will call the afternoon of Monday 29th March a club session. Come and show us how well Joe Wicks kept you in shape over the winter. Or not.

Wondering about joining ? This would be an excellent time to come and give us a try. Bring a racket.