OKEHAMPTON?S men?s A tennis team played three games in ten days to deal with a backlog of fixtures in a rain affected season. Victories in all games has pushed the club into contention for promotion for the third consecutive season The week started with a 7-2 victory at Sampford Peverell. Dan Arnot partnered newcomer Adam Richards to straight set wins in both their games, whilst Paul Love and Stuart Jarvis lost their first match by two sets to one, but recovered to win the second rubber 7-6,6-0. A home match against Exmouth resulted in a 6-3 victory. Chris Searle returned to the team and partnered Paul Love to a straight sets win in their first game, but a turnaround in fortunes saw the paring defeated in two sets by Exmouth?s second string. Dan Arnot and Stuart Jarvis showed strong and consistent play in both their games, winning their first match in a third set tie-break, while coasting to victory in the second rubber, 6-4,6-1. The final match saw the return fixture with Sampford Peverell at Simmons Park. It was a close one with Okehampton running out the eventual winner by seven sets to three. On this occasion Adam Richards returned to play with Dan Arnot, and the pairing had a tough battle in their first game, eventually winning 6-4, 6-7, 7-6. A more comfortable passage was found in their second game, with Okehampton winning in straight sets, 6-3, 6-4. Okehampton?s second pairing of Paul Love and Stuart Jarvis coasted to victory in their first game (7-5, 6-1), and narrowly lost to Sampford?s first pair in a third set tie-break. Overall, the three games netted Okehampton 20 points out of a maximum 24, and pushed the team up to third place in the league with two games in hand. l Next fixture: Okehampton are away to Exmouth on August 8.
