Sutton down Guernsey in shoot-out

THE tennis equivalent of a penalty shoot-out was needed to decide Guernsey's National Clubs Division Two match with Sutton Tennis Academy at Longs Camps yesterday. And it was the home side who were the disappointed group of players after a championship tiebreak was needed when the scores were level at three-all following the singles and doubles matches.

Rob West was the only Sarnian to get a win in the shoot-out when he defeated Josh Waiteman 17-15 in a marathon tiebreak.

The young Sutton outfit won the shoot-out 2-1 to ensure that they returned to south London with the honours.

'I'm a little bit disappointed,' said Cleveland State University tennis scholar West.

'It's just a bit of a lottery when it goes to a shoot-out. It can go either way and one point can change it.'

Guernsey went into the match without their star players, Dom McLuskey, Pat Ogier and captain Chris Hickling, who is out with a long-term injury.

In came juniors Nico Robinson and Johnny Taylor to join West and senior players Jimmy Wood and Andy Privett.

Despite the loss, manager Ian Robinson was pleased with the performance of his young charges.

'OK, we've lost, but we've done well,' he said.

'We've got the next crop of juniors coming through and to get that close was impressive.

'What we've tried to do is get a balance of getting out our good young players like Dom and Pat but when they've not been available, instead of going with the older players, we've gone with the juniors.

'Both Nico and Johnny did well.'

The honours were shared in the singles as West beat Waiteman 6-3, 6-4 and Wood got the better of Sean Wilson 6-4, 6-2.

But Sutton took the other two clashes as both Privett and Taylor come undone against Andrew MacGlashen and Sam Parfitt respectively.

It was same story in the doubles as Wood and Robinson defeated Wilson and Parfitt 6-4, 7-6 while Privett and West lost to Waiteman and MacGlashen.

Now at three-all, a shoot-out was required to settle the outcome.

Two singles and a doubles match were called with each going to 10 championship tiebreak points.

Wood lost to Wilson 10-8 before Privett and Robinson fell to MacGlashen and Parfitt 13-11.

Now just playing for pride, West dug deep to get past Waiteman 17-15.

'It was good as we are a young team and we've learnt a lot from today,' said Sutton's French coach Erwan Nicolas.

'We lost a match like this at the start of the league so to win this was good. It will be interesting to see how we react from this.'

Guernsey now travel to Brighton on Sunday 17 June to take on Pavilion and Avenue. A win there could still see them promoted to Division One.