The First round of the Winter Cup got under way this week with a noticeable absence - the big boys.

For the first time in the league's history it has not included the First Division clubs in the opening round of the competition.

The aim is to give the smaller clubs more games before they come up against the larger clubs.

"We keep improving tennis for all local clubs and this is another example of that," said a spokesman for the league, which recently celebrated its golden anniversary.

All matches were settled over two rubbers with the exception of Hockley v Crowstone and Wickford v Rochford.

Crowstone duo Paul Bundock and Chris Tancock defeated Hockley's Vic and Pauline Bruce 6-2 6-4 in the first match of their Mixed Winter Cup competition.

But Colin and Jacky Bruce levelled things for the Folly Lane club with a 6-0 6-4 win over Crowstone's Alex Welsh and Angela Greenwood.

And in the deciding set Colin and Pauline wrapped things up with a 6-1 win over Paul and Angela.

Wickford's ladies team of Claire Bullman, Glynis Exley, Sandra Ellis and Isobel Crawford enjoyed a walkover to the second round after their Rochford opponents were unable to field a team.

Men's Winter Cup results: Rochford v Southend Lawn (3-6 7-5 2-6, 6-4 6-4) sets 4-3, Invicta v Wickford (1-6 3-6, 1-6 6-2 third set not played) sets 1-3, Westcliff Lawn v Hadleigh Park (6-1 6-2, 6-1 6-4) sets 4-0, St Peters v Invicta (4-6 5-7, 3-6 6-3 6-7) sets 1-4.

Ladies' Winter Cup result: St Peters v Southend Lawn (3-6 6-0 6-7, 6-1 2-6 4-6) sets 2-4. Mixed Winter Cup results: Hockley v Crowstone (2-6 4-6, 6-0 6-4) sets 2-2 (Hockley won decider 6-1), Hockley v Leigh (2-5 7-5, 6-2 6-2) sets 3-1, Wickford v Rochford (walkover to Wickford) sets 4-0.

Jamie's in good company

Jamie Robinson rubbed shoulders with British wheelchair tennis's top flight at the national trials in Birmingham.

The 28-year-old, who lives in Benfleet, joined UK number one Jayant Mistry and other top players at the Billesley Indoor Tennis Centre, where national coach Martin Whait run the rule over them.

Jamie won all four one-set games he played and is now waiting for Martin to decide which training group the world 108-ranked player will be in.

"The tennis went very well," said Jamie. "Because I was late due to the traffic, I missed some of the exercises at the start and went straight into the small matches.

"This allowed the coach to see who was playing and assess who's where in terms of quality of play and levels of performance at the moment.

"We played one-set matches and I dropped two games in the four matches I played."

Martin will now study the notes he made before deciding who goes into which of the three UK training groups.

Jamie hopes his performance will put him in the middle group behind the top four British players.

Essex Leagues face major restructuring

Essex tennis is facing a major shake-up next year in a move aimed at making the county's leagues more dynamic.

The current 11 men's doubles divisions will be scrapped and replaced with a top flight and five divisions with two sections, and the ladies' divisions will follow the same set up in a reshuffle agreed at the Essex LTA general meeting.

Two teams will be relegated from each division and two will go up at the end of each season in a structure that mirrors the ones used by the Lawn Tennis Association.

"This is a major change for Essex tennis and one which will improve things dramatically," said a spokesman for the county LTA following the decision.

"Currently if a team enters they would go into division 11 and it would take them ten years to get to division one. This allows them to do it in about four years.

"The new structure will allow a team to find their level quicker. They will stand a much quicker chance of getting promotion to the top division."

The spokesman explained that the current arrangement also prevents a team from being promoted if another team from the same club is already in the higher division.

Under the new arrangement a team being promoted from division 3A, for example, could go into division 2B if there was already a team from the same club in division 2A.

From next year the men's league will see division one having eight clubs. Divisions two to five will each have an A and B section, each containing seven or eight teams.

The ladies' league will feature an eight-team division one with division two being split in to A and B with seven or eight clubs in each.

Division three of the ladies' league will be divided into A, B and C sections with seven or eight teams in each.

(bullet) The tennis scene was hit by the poor weather conditions over the weekend.

But one game that did beat the rain was Westcliff Lawn's fourth team's Essex Winter League Division Five match against Hockley's first team.

The Folly Lane club ran out 4-0 winners thanks to Greg and Gary McDonald, Kevin Eley and Chris Roome.

Alan Ralph, Ken Poole, Roland Swain and Lane Blaney made up the losing Lawn contingent.

Converted for the new archive on 19 November 2001. Some images and formatting may have been lost in the conversion.