Barbados beat England as international flavour comes to Melton Mowbray Tennis Club

Helen Roper returned from her sunny Barbados home for Christmas and was soon in action on the Melton Mowbray Tennis Club courts.

Selecting her team to represent Barbados she was to team up with Rosie Gildove, David Gildove and Steve Thompson.

Their opponents were of course England captained by Jenny Golland whose team were Carolyn Siddall, Jeremy Siddall and Nigel Haynes.

The format was to see men’s, ladies’ and mixed matches.

The first round of mixed matches saw England in the driving seat with Carolyn and Jeremy Siddall collecting a tight 5-4 win over Rosie and Dave Gildove and skipper Jenny Golland and Nigel Haynes notching a 6-3 win over Helen Roper and Steve Thompson to give England a 2-0 lead.

The second round saw a complete turn around with Helen and Rosie teaming up to beat Jenny and Carolyn by an 8-1 score line before Dave Gildove was injured during the men’s match.

Club coach and referee Brent Horobin was brought in as substitute for Dave and he teamed up with Steve Thompson to snatch a dramatic 5-4 win over Nigel and Jeremy.

Rosie and Steve put Barbados ahead with a tight 4-3 win over Jenny and Jeremy before Helen and Brent teamed up to clinch the win with A 5-2 win over Nigel and Carolyn.

The Caribbean Tennis Trophy was handed over to Helen and her teammates and everyone had stated that they had all enjoyed the match format with many super rallies with most players not hiding the fact that they would all be available for a return match in Barbados.

Results: Round one - R. Gildove & D. Gildove 4 C. Siddall & J. Siddall 5, H. Roper & S.Thompson 2 N. Haynes & J. Golland 6; Round two - H. Roper & R. Gildove 8 C. Siddall & J. Golland 1; B. Horobin & S. Thompson 5 N. Haynes & J. Siddall 4; Round three - H. Roper & B. Horobin 5 N. Haynes & C. Siddall 2, R. Gildove & S. Thompson 4 J. Golland & J. Siddall 3.