East of Scotland men’s and women’s tennis teams both made a winning in their respective groups as the annual LTA Summer Cup (county week) gets underway.
Playing at Eastbourne in Group One, where they came close to topping the table in 2022 losing out on sets, the men have an unassailable 6-2 lead over Northamptonshire although they will have to complete with James MacKinlay and Euan McIntosh since drizzle interrupted proceedings and meant a premature halt to an extended day’s play.
The tie turned on ties in the first of the three rounds when all three Scottish pairings recovered from a first set loss to win a deciding champions’ tie break.
The other two pairings were Alan Macdonald and Matt Rankin (home from Kentucky University and playing on his 20th birthday) and Scott Duncan and Sam MacNeill.
That meant young Luke McFarlane, a star in division one of the VMH solicitors East Leagues this summer when he won all of his matches for Barnton Park, has had to wait for his county week debut.
In the same group North of Scotland, including Jed Alexander from St Serfs, opened with a 5-4 win over Hertfordshire.
The women, relegated to group five at Ilkley, showed signs of being capable of a quick return when they saw off Herefordshire and Worcester 6-3.
There were three wins for Mhairi Beattie and Maisie Wood and with the squad being rotated there were debuts for Hanna Augustynska as well as Aadya Iyer Chadalawada who started and won a tie in partnership with Shaylin Holt.
Maisie Wood is due to return home in midweek and will be replaced by Braid’s Heather Croll for the final two matches.
Double winners for East were captain Ama Nisbet and Sarah McFadyen.
Today (Tuesday) the men face a Surrey side who edged out Kent 5-4 while the women encounterd Durham and Cleveland, 6-3 winnes over South Wales.
Evergreen sports journalist. Previously published in many publications around the world. Send me your local sports stories. billlothian1008@gmail.com
