10-08-2015
Junior Club Championships
The boys and girls junior club championships will be played on Friday 21st and Saturday 22nd for age groups under 10, 12, 14 16 and 18. There will also be doubles events under 14 and 18. All members interested in playing should register their names on the official form in the clubhouse or text Martin O’ Rourke 0872451486.
Court Maintenance
Courts 3 and 4 will ready for playing on from Monday while courts 1 and 2 will be out of use until Friday.
Midland Leagues
Division 3
Athlone 1 played their first match of the 2015 Midlands League campaign on Thursday last in Tullamore. Having arrived all set to play on Wednesday evening and after a patient wait to see if the rain and floods would dissipate the decision was made to postpone the match by 24 hours.
Thursday evening brought much better conditions and two very keen teams got the tie underway. Des Windsor McGlynn and Richard Frank took on Joe and Winston from Tullamore. A quick start from the Athlone men saw them take an early 5-2 lead. However the Tullamore boys knuckled down and fought back strongy to take the match 9-6. A disappointing start for the Athlone 1 men. In the ladies doubles there was no such struggle for Orla Kinahan and Michèle Culligan who ran away with their match against Bernie and Mary 9-3.
In the mixed doubles Des and Orla took on Joe and Bernie. Having taken a commanding 6 love lead the Athlone 1 duo closed out the match comfortably 9-3. Not so straightforward for Richard and Michèle who found themselves 3 love down in their match against Winston and Mary. A great comeback saw the Athlone 1 team win the second mixed doubles match 9-4 and the tie 3-1. A good start in Division 3 for Athlone 1 who are eagerly awaiting their next opponents Athlone 2.
Athlone 2 played Birr Wilmer 1 last Wednesday and were beaten 1-3. They were unlucky to lose two tiebreak matches, the total number of games won was 35 to 31, which gives a clear idea of how evenly matched both teams were.
Paula Dowling and Joan Conway lost their doubles 6-9, however Luciano Molinari and Tomasz Koza won 9-8. Paula and Tomasz, Joan and Luciano lost both their mixed doubles events 8-9 in two closely fought tiebreak matches. Their next match is scheduled for Wednesday 18th when both Athlone teams will compete against each other.
Division 5
Puckaun ladies travelled to Athlone last Thursday and were very happy returning home winning by 36 games to 23. Julie Costello and Mary Jo O’ Farrell lost 6-9 while Rose Costello and Olivia Sumner lost 1-9 in the first series of matches. However in the second series of matches the Athlone ladies were narrowly beaten in two tiebreak matches 8-9. Athlone next series of matches are away to Roscrea 2 on Tuesday 18th.
Social Tennis
Last Monday in very blustery conditions Dave Costello and John Cooney coped best combining to overcome the opposition.
Jill Oliver made a welcome return to tennis last Tuesday night and enjoyed a good night’s tennis with the other ladies.
Mixed doubles competitions will continue this Thursday as there are no midland league matches on.
Coaching
Clem Higginbotham continues coaching lessons for junior members every Saturday. The lessons begin at 10 for children under 8, at 11 for under 12 and at 12 o’ clock for older children. His contact number is 0864022490.
Derek Stenson is available to give individual lessons contact number 0851080013.