We are delighted to be able to report that Chichester Men's team brought back the Solent Cup for The P&D League in an incredibly exciting, high quality match at Court X last weekend.
As winners of The Portsmouth League, they played Salisbury Men who won The Southamp[ton League in the annual showpiece final to the winter season to establish The South Hants Champions.
Cheered on by large supporting crowd from West Sussex,, Chichester and Salisbury shared the opening two rubbers. Salisbury's 1st pair then beat The Chister 1's which left the match hanging on the out come of the two 2nd pairs. James Bird and Chrlie Guimaraens won the first set quite comfortably. By winning the second set and therefore the match would have given Chicheter the tittle, however Salisbury dug deep and won the second set 7-5 to set up a "winner takes all" third set decider.
The Chichester pairing managed to forge ahead during a tight and tense set and eventually had two match points, only to be twarted and the set went to a tie-break. It was nip and tuck the whole way until afetr more than four hours of excitement Guimaraens served out for the narrowest of wins 10-8 and thus securing the Solent Cup on games won for the first time in their history.
The scores:- Rubbers 2-2, Sets -5-5, Games 52-44
Chichester Team: 1st pair Matt Worden/Joe Glover, 2nd pair James Bird/Charlie Guimaraens