Lancaster’s tennis team staged a dramatic fight back against arch rivals York; winning the deciding match by a final set tie breaker. Antoine Prieur and Chris Blackburn twice battled back from match point to win what proved to be an extraordinary game.
Both teams looked confident going into the meeting and the contest started off evenly, with Dami Yussuf and Lee Cardy winning comfortably for Lancaster; while Alasdair Killin and Adam Playle did the same for York.
Lancaster’s players were then brushed aside by dominant performances from Daryl Ong and Kieran Jones who gave York a 4-2 lead, meaning they needed to win just one of the three doubles matches later in the day.
This led to a remarkable comeback from Lancaster as the partnership of Lee Cardy and Liddell-Crewe proved too much for their opponents, cruising to a 6-3 6-2 which pulled Lancaster back within one point of the white rose.
Dami Yussuf continued his excellent form alongside Doug Meikle to level the scores with some powerful hitting, beating Killin and Arnott 7-6 6-1.
This meant Blackman and Prieur’s game with Max Treharne and Josh Drake had now become a deciding game, putting extra pressure on all four players. This seemed to affect the Lancaster duo as they lost the first set 7-6 and struggled to get a foothold in the second.
Prieur dug in to save match point and keep Lancaster’s hopes alive as the pair battled back. After winning the second set and surviving an extremely tense final tie break, Prieur slammed the ball past Drake to earn Lancaster a spectacular 2 point victory.
