The Men's 50-Plus Tennis League of Lee County is only four weeks into the season, so
it’s far too early for predictions, but we can take a look at who is off to a
good start. We’ll start with the lower divisions and work our way up.
Blue Flight D
Breckenridge has won all four of its team matches and has posted
a 15-1 record for individual matches. Gulf Harbour and Kelly Greens are tied
for second with 10 points each, but neither fared so against Breckenridge, both
losing all four courts in their first contest with the league leader. Unless
the second place teams bring in some reinforcements or Breckenridge suffers
injuries or defections, it looks like the rest of the teams will be playing for
second. Long way to go though.
Blue Flight C
Things appear to be shaping up a bit tighter in this
division, with Shadow Wood (12 points) holding a two-point lead over Vines and
Dunes (RB), which are tied for second with 10 points. Dunes (DC) and Seven
Lakes are in hot pursuit with nine and eight points respectively. A number of
other teams seem to be competitive as well, so this one looks like a good race
to watch.
Blue Flight B
Fort Myers Racquet Club continues to show its strength on
the courts in this closely contested division. They are tied for the lead with
Legends (10 points each), just two points ahead of the two teams tied for third
with eight points: Gulf Harbour and The Landings. Cross Creek isn’t much
further behind, sitting in fifth with six points.
Blue Flight A
The Landings and Lexington are tied atop the division with
11 points each, and they meet each other for the first time in their next match
on Tuesday, January 8 at the Landings. Colonial is lurking right behind the
leaders with 10 points, and already have a 3-1-win over the Landings. However,
Colonial lost 1-3 to Lexington at home, so that doesn’t bode well for The
Landings. We shall see next week. In fourth place with seven points, Cape Coral
Racquet Club (CCRC) has shown that it could contend for the division, having
split the four courts in their match with The Landings.
White Flight E
CCRC (13) leads Flight E by two points over The Forest (11),
but dropped three courts to The Forest in Week 2. CCRC has swept its other
three opponents, but those opponents don’t appear to be among “the contenders”
at this stage of the game. The Forest, on the other hand, have played the other
three teams in the top four, beating two (CCRC and Heritage Palms- 9 points) by
3-1 scores, and splitting the four courts with Pelican Preserve (9 points).
These four appear to be the cream of the Flight E crop, but only time will
tell.
White Flight D
It doesn’t get any closer than the race in this flight, with
Pelican Landing and Fort Myers Racquet Club (FMRC) tied with 11 points atop the
division, and the two split the four courts in their only meeting thus far. The
match was played at FMRC, so the nod must go to Pelican Landing at this stage. However,
The Landings is only two points behind the leaders, hasn’t played either, and
has played one match fewer. There are at least three horses in this race.
White Flight C
Park Meadow has swept three of its four
opponents to claim the early division-lead with 15 points. Lexington and
Cypress Lake are tied for second with 11 points each, and three points back in
fourth is The Vines (JW). Park Meadow hasn’t played the other two teams in the top
three, but did shutout The Vines (JW) in their only meeting. Despite the tie,
Lexington did take three of four courts in their only meeting with Cypress.
It’s definitely too early to know how this will shake out, but chances are the
division-winner will come from among the three currently at the top.
White Flight B
With only five points separating the eight teams in this
division, it is the most competitive of the divisions. Colonial and The Dunes
are atop the leader board with 10 points apiece, Pelican Landing and Shadow
Wood are locked up at nine points each, and Lexington is holding down the fifth
spot with eight points. If you’re looking for an edge, you might consider that
The Dunes split the four courts with Colonial, and beat Lexington 3-1, while
Lexington downed Colonial 3-1. In fact, The Dunes has yet to lose a match, winning
two and splitting two matches. After only four matches, this is far too close
to even speculate. Certainly warrants a good look down the road.
White Flight A
Does the name “FMRC” ring a bell? Well it should, because
FMRC is holding down another division lead. It’s a slim, one-point lead (12-11)
over Pelican Landing (another name that keeps popping up among division
leaders), but it’s a lead nonetheless. Right on their heels is Kelly greens
with 10 points and Pelican Preserve with nine. Although sitting in third, Kelly
Greens has shown that it is competitive with the top two, splitting the four
courts with both. Given that Kelly Greens split with Grandezza, which is tied
for fifth with Seven Lakes at seven points apiece, and lost to Pelican
Preserve, 1-3, another heated battle appears to be shaping up in this division.
Red Flight D
Taking a place from the White B Division, Red D’s eight
teams are also separated by just five points. Tied for the 1-spot is Shadow
Wood and Legends with 10 points each, followed by Gulf Harbour and Herons Glen
with nine apiece, and The Landings closing out the top-five with eight. Despite
the tie at the top, Legends took three of four courts against Shadow Wood in
their only meeting.
There has been just one sweep in the 16 matches played in
this division, and the only team without a loss thus far is Legends, which has
won two and tied two. Although Gulf Harbour took a tough 1-3 loss to
Breckenridge (one point out of fifth), all of its matches has been on the road.
Perhaps some home cooking might change its fortunes.
Red Flight C
Posting three sweeps in four matches, Gulf Harbour sits atop
the Red C throne with 15 points, three ahead of The Forest in second-place.
While Gulf Harbour hasn’t played any of the top four teams, The Forest did take
three courts from third-place Lighthouse Bay (9 points). Beachview sits in
fourth place with seven points despite two early 1-3 losses, and FMRC and Park
Meadow are tied for fifth with six points each.
Red Flight B
FMRC (13 points) holds a two-point lead over Pelican Landing
(11 points) and took three of four courts in its last outing against Pelican
Landing. It was Pelican Landing’s first loss, having posted a sweep and two 3-1
victories prior to the loss to FMRC. Colonial is tied for second, and split the
four courts with FMRC when they met in Week 3. Plantation is five points behind
Colonial, but did split its match with Colonial in Week 2. This division
doesn’t appear to be as deep as some of the others, but there should be a good
race for the top three spots.
Red Flight A
Flight A is the highest level in the League, and has but
four teams, the fewest number of teams in the League. Although Park Meadow, led
by Mike Welter, has only played twice, the team leads the league with seven
points. The Dunes is second with six after three matches played, and Heritage
Palms is third with five points, also after three matches. The Landings is
bringing up the rear in this division, posting just two points in two matches. [Note: If you go to the league website you will no longer find results for Red A. More on that when I get the chance...]
As you can certainly see by now, there is no shortage of tennis
and/or leagues in Lee County, and that’s even if you’re north of 70-years-old! This
particular league is comprised of 36 teams in five divisions, and they are as
competitive as any. Here, we’ll start with the, um, “least mobile” let’s call
it, division.
Orange Division
Three weeks into the 15-week season, Pelican Preserve has
swept two opponents and won three of four matches against the other, to take
the early lead with 11 points. Shadow Wood holds second place with eight points
and Legends is third with seven. Legends already dropped three of four courts
to Shadow Wood, but Pelican Preserve has yet to play either of the other two
teams in the top three.
Green Division
Only two matches into the 14-week season for this division
and Kelly Greens has a one-point edge over Seven Lakes, having swept its first
two matches against Colonial and Pelican Landing. Seven Lakes swept Gulf
Harbour and three of four from Lexington. Breckenridge is in third with six
points after taking three of four courts in its first two matches. It’s far too
early to prognosticate, so we will just have to check back with these teams
later in the season.
Blue Division
Like Kelly Greens, Legends has jumped out to the early lead
with two sweeps against The Forest and The Landings. The Vines swept Sanibel
Harbour and took three of four from The Forest to claim second place thus far, and
Cypress Lake and Cross Creek are tied for third with five points apiece. With
12 weeks yet to go in the season, we can’t place any solid bets, but we can say
that The Forest had better pick up the pace!
White Division
There’s a tie atop the White Division with Herons Glen and
Heritage Palm both posting seven points after two matches. The Landings and
Lighthouse Bay are right on the leaders’ tails, sitting in third and fourth,
with six and five points respectively. The two split their match with each
other, but neither has played the top two teams. The division-winner is likely
to emerge from this quartet, unless reinforcements arrive for the other teams
in the division.
Red Division
At the pinnacle of the 70-Plus heap is the Red Division, and
Plantation holds the edge in the division after three matches with 10 points.
The Landings is one point back in second and the two split their first match in
Week 3. The Dunes is third with seven points and FMRC is fourth with six. These
two split their first match as well, but FMRC had the misfortune of playing and
being swept by the Landings in Week 1, while The Dunes hasn’t played one of the
top teams. The battle ought to be fierce the next twelve weeks of the season.
In one of the newest local leagues, Beachview leads the way
with 14 points sweeping all four courts in two of the four matches they have
played and winning three of four courts in the other two matches. There’s no
doubt that Beachview is the prohibitive favorite to win the inaugural season of
SWFTT, as they field the best roster of players in the league. Their No.1 team
of Peter Redpath and Mark Andrews have yet ot come close to losing a set, three
being the most games they have lost in any set in the four matches they have
played.
The Landings is holding down second place just three points
behind Beachview, but that is by virtue of having played five matches to
Beachview’s four. The Landings has a solid team as well, but lack the dominant
first-court team and the depth of Beachview.
Pelican Landing, Lighthouse Bay and Plantation are in a
three-way tie for third, with eight points apiece. Lighthouse Bay has beaten both second-place
Landings and Pelican Landings by 3-1 scores, but hasn’t played Plantation.
However, Plantation split with the Landings and lost three of four matches to
Pelican Landing, so the odds are good that Lighthouse Bay will be the second
place front-runner.
Jeff Hossler has proven to be the backbone of Plantation’s
squad, winning all four matches in first and second positions. Jeff will have
his work cut out for him, however, if he plays in one of those spots against
Lighthouse. In eight individual matches at the one and two positions,
Lighthouse has lost three, and two of those were to the Beachview juggernaut.
Cape Coral Racquet Club (CCRC) and The Vines are bringing up
the rear in the sixth (7points) and seventh (4 points) spots respectively. The
odds aren’t good that either team will finish higher than the slots they now
occupy, but that won’t stop them from playing. I’m hoping to join the fray for
my CCRC team soon. There are 16 more weeks to play and anything can
happen…well, almost. Click
here to browse the SWFTT website.
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