As the Six Nations rugby drew to a close with an exciting finale on Sunday, March 17th Ross had its own local ladies tennis derby. With Ross Ladies B team and Goodrich B team at the top of division 4 in the Herefordshire and Worcester LTA  league it was an important game to determine which teams would be likely to move up next season.

So it was all to play for as the two teams started the match on a blustery Sunday morning at Ross Tennis Centre. Sandy Foulkes and Gaynor Raine got off to a good start  playing Goodrich’s first pair, Jill Brown and Kirsten Ainsworth. Despite some superb rallies from for the left handed Goodrich pair, Sandy and Gaynor managed to cope a bit better with the windy conditions and won the rubber 6:2, 6:3.

Ross’ second pair Hayley Jackson and Millie Wiggins, both standing in and playing together for the first time had a really tough match against the Goodrich seconds, Wendy Jenkins and Kirsten Mathews. The Ross pair lost the first set 5:7, but then picked up their game and with some super tennis and exceptionally long rallies the Ross pair won the rubber.

The final two rubbers were very close but Ross pair Sandy and Gaynor managed to clinch the first rubber, 7:5,6:4 but it really was a close match, with most games being very close.See the full story in this week’s edition of the Ross Gazette, or subscribe to our online edition here