The Isle of Man women’s tennis team competed in the annual Winter County Cup event in Boston, Lincolnshire recently.

This is a huge event including counties across Britain, with 11 divisions hosted at different venues. The Isle of Man were part of a division including Cornwall, Northamptonshire and South of Scotland.

The weekend saw some strong performances from the Isle of Man team. On day one they played Cornwall who had recently come down from a higher division.

The day started promisingly with singles wins from Elena Snidal (6-1 6-0) and Charlotte Clarke (6-0 6-1), but despite a close three-set match for Hannah Snidal (2-6 6-4 2-6) the team could not clinch any more singles wins.

Hannah teamed up with Alison King to take a doubles win (6-3 6-1) but Cornwall were stronger overall and took the tie 6-3.

Day two saw the Manx team take on Northamptonshire. Clare Borland had a slow start with her singles match but, after support from the rest of the team, managed to turn the tables and win in three sets (3-6 6-1 6-0).

Again 13-year-old Clarke out-hit a more experienced player to win convincingly (6-2 6-1). Karen Faragher also out-manoeuvred her opponent to win (6-1 6-1), while Laura Feely played a high-intensity match but narrowly lost in three sets.

Thankfully the Isle of Man dominated the doubles with Hannah and King taking their second win after a tight first set and Faragher and Feely back on top form to also take the win (6-1 6-2). Final score - Isle of Man 5, Northamptonshire 4.

On the last day the Isle of Man played the South of Scotland. After the previous day’s performance the team were confident of a win, but had the added time pressure of a flight to catch.

Elena and Borland set the ball rolling with comfortable singles wins, shortly followed by Clarke (undefeated in singles over the weekend) and Faragher.

This meant the Isle of Man only needed to win one of the doubles matches to take the overall win. Hannah and King stepped up again and maintained their unbeaten record for the weekend, therefore the team had clinched victory. With Faragher and Feely also winning their doubles match, the final score was Isle of Man 6, South of Scotland 3 (and plenty of time to get to the airport).

Northamptonshire beat Cornwall, meaning that three of the four teams were tied on two wins each. On countback of rubbers won, the Isle of Man finished eventual runners-up to Cornwall, managing to hold off Northamptonshire based on the number of sets won - showing that every set counted.

Overall a fantastic weekend of tennis and promising performances ahead of this summer’s NatWest Island Games in Gibraltar.