A great start to our Winter League campaign with 6 of the 7 men’s teams winning last weekend. Below is a summary of each team performance, and, a novel from Team 5 (counselling will be made available to those impacted by the contents of this novel!!).

Best of luck teams for continued success this weekend. Teams playing at home this Sunday morning are teams 2, 4, 5 & 7 if you are interested in seeing some of the action!

Good luck to all

Liam

Week 1 Match Reports

Team 1 – Away to Glenageary (0-3)
Not a good day for Sandycove 1sts with a 3-0 loss to a strong Glenageary side. We will be looking forward to better fortunes this weekend!

Team 2 – Away to UCD (2-1)
A hard fought win over a strong UCD 1st team. Special mention to Liam Reynolds for winning on his Sandycove debut in straight sets alongside Oisin O Hanlon in a very impressive and quick fashion hopefully a sign of things to come. Jocelyn and super sub Paul Ivory also managed to claim victory is straight sets as well to seal the win. Unfortunately after winning the opening set Kevin Nolan and Colin Grant lost out at first doubles in 3 sets. However a good start to kick things off and a great win to start .

Team 3 – Home to Templeogue (2-1)
The Sandycove Men’s Third team won 2-1 at home to Templeogue 4, perhaps inspired by their pre-match viewing of Federer vs Cilic in the clubhouse. Second doubles Ken Browne and Roy Bailey were first off court with an efficient 6-3 6-4 win. Next off court were first doubles Keith O’Byrne and J P Begley with a 2 set 7-5 7-5 win. Paul Kilduff and Tim Eaton unfortunately managed to snatch defeat from the jaws of victory and lost in 3 long sets, going down by 8-10 in a third set tie-break.

Team 4 – Home to Clontarf (3-0)
Great start for the fourth team with a 3-0 win over a tough Clontarf team. Will Fitzgerald had a routine introduction to League tennis with 6-1, 6-1 win over two seasoned Clontarf players ably assisted by Dad Paul. Next off were Frank McCooey and Colin Wardlaw after a very close two set win having to come back from 5-3 down in the first set. The final point was brought home by Mark Cunningham and Dave Hanley. In an extremely tight and tense game they brushed aside a match point against them and took the final set tie break 8-6.

Team 5 – Home to Clontarf (2-1)
First up young Chris Daly with team Captain John f Burke. Great start to the first set and stormed into a 4 to 1 lead only to flitter this away over the following 5 games and face into a 6 to 5 deficit and love 30 down on Daily’s serve. 10 minutes of excellent play from Chris saw the lads head into a tie break which they duly won 7 to 3 to tale the first set. A more comfortable 2nd set fell into a quick rhythm and Daly and Burke won with one break of serve 6 / 4 and close out the match.
Match two saw Greg McDowell Team up with Alan Warren to make up a strong team. The guys came up against a very strong Clontarf team and this match was all about the first set. Tight with plenty of chances on both sides of the net Greg and Alan went down 7 / 5. The second set went by in a flash as the Clontarf team got on a roll and the boys went down in two. Big things expected of the guys next game up and there is enough quality in the team to do damage throughout the campaign.
Match three saw Dermot Bennet and Shane Gill team up and not for the first time deliver a great win again against a strong third Clontarf team. Two tight sets ending in a tie break in which the team pulled off a 7 to 6 victory saw Sandycove home 2 / 1 for the match and a great start to this year’s League. By all accounts Bennett owned the net in this match while Gill moved with the agility of a cat covering every inch of the court. A sight to behold no doubt! Great days ahead for this strong pairing.

Team 6 – Home to Newtown Park (3-0)
On a Blustery Sunday we joined a busy schedule to take on near neighbours Newtown Park. Our young but experienced (having played league for a few years now) number three pair , Harry Wall and Sean Cronin easily dispatched their opponents in straight sets and were first back in the clubhouse having won 6-2 , 6-2. Next off were the “not as young” pairing of Men’s Captain Liam and Tim McNichols who also made light work of their match by taking that match again in straight sets , 6-2 , 6-0. Lastly, at 1st doubles , the Wise Men of Joe Cunningham partnered by Gary Byrne were cruising towards the line having won the first set 6-3 and following 2 racquets submitted to broken strings in the penultimate game by GB, finished the match with a 6-2 win (following 10 deuce points in the last game (thanks to the assistance of Oisin’s O’H’s spare racquet). Overall a great start for our team and sets us well for a trip to D4 (Fitzwilliam) next week

Team 7 – Away to Charleville (3-0)
Great start to the campaign from Sandycove 7ths with all three pairings returning from the Northside with the win. First off court were Philip Bayfield and Larry Staines with a 6-2, 6-1 demolition of their opponents closely followed by Pat Leamy and Tony Collison with a routine 6-2, 6-2 victory. Declan Keane and Stephen McGoohan took slightly longer to wrap things up. After being 2-0 and breakpoint down in the 3rd, they composed themselves to claim 6 of the next 7 games and ensure a clean sweep for the team.