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Riverside and Thornden are slugging it out in the Winter Mens Doubles leagues, taking half of all the top spots across the Southampton LTA’s seven divisions.

Riverside hold the edge on ultimate honours right now, but how will things end? It’s still too close to call.

Before we get to that, Tom offers his defence for rough & smooth racquet calls, and we cover the latest news from Hampshire’s clubs and players.

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This week on the show we take a look at how the Southampton LTA's Winter Mixed Doubles leagues are stacking up as players get ready to restart all the action after the Christmas & New Year break.

Rob Ernsberger, captain of Twyford Mixed, joins us to talk about life in Division Two for the team that has secured back-to-back-to-back promotions.

But first, Rob & Dave competed in their first ever match with LTA Umpires. We talk about what that was like, and our main takeaways from that experience. Learn from our do’s and don’ts, hopefully BEFORE you get on court with an umpire!

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This week we welcome to the show Mat Johnstone, Hampshire tennis native and the UK’s Number One PST3 Para-Standing Tennis player.

Mat shares his journey from an up-and-coming tennis junior at Warsash to top Para-Standing Tennis player with an eye on the World Top Ten rankings for 2026. Mat shares his early experiences in tennis, the life-changing impact of meningitis at 17, and his subsequent rehabilitation.

We talk with Mat about his transition from wheelchair tennis to para-standing tennis, the challenges he faced, and his aspirations for the future. Mat’s life story highlights the importance of resilience, adaptability, and a lot of what's great about the Hampshire tennis community.

Mat also describes the nuances of walking and parastanding tennis, including the similarities and differences in rules and performance. We also talk a bit of Sabalenka and Kyrgios!

Mat is on Instagram, where you can find him using the handle @matjohnstone23.

You can find out more about Mat, including how to sponsor his pursuit of global top ten, here:

https://sponsorseeker.co.uk/listing/mat-johnstone-para-standing-tennis/

You can follow the global Para Standing Tennis sport here:

https://www.parastandingtennis.com

The LTA’s initiatives in Para Standing Tennis is described here:

https://www.lta.org.uk/play/inclusion-disability/para-standing-tennis/

And you can send us your thoughts for (or about!) the show:

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Welcome to the show Richard Cutler, Charity Director and Councillor at Hampshire & Isle of Wight Tennis, the county authority for tennis that brings rhyme and reason to the way tennis functions across the county. Have we had a better opportunity so far to better understand how tennis works in Hampshire than this interview? I don’t think so!

Richard was well prepared for this one - lots of engaging discussion and plenty of facts and figures. Ever wondered how many tennis players there are in Hampshire? How Hampshire stacks up nationally? How the county is doing on its RAG deliverables, and which district LTA is the best of them all? Richard has answers for all those questions, and shares his views on all of them except the last one… he has relationships to maintain of course!

We also explore Richard’s work with the LTA at the national level - the mothership on which Richard has been a board member for the past few years. In fact he’s alongside LTA President Sandi Proctor in the cover art for this episode. Both Richard and Sandi are completing their time with the LTA Board at the end of 2025.

Towards the end of the show we get into some Padel-chat (that starts at around 47 minutes) and Richard’s ambitions for Totton & Eling Tennis Center, where is is the Managing Director (that starts at around 62 minutes).

You can find Hampshire & IOW Tennis at: https://hampshireiow.tennis and on Instagram at @hampshireiowtennis. Keep an eye out for their Showcase event and awards ceremony, due to be held on April 18, 2026.

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We’re back from travels just in time to do our final Southampton LTA winter leagues check in before the end of the year.

This time we take a look through ladies doubles where 33 teams representing 21 clubs are midway through the season across five divisions.

There are a few surprises up and down the divisions, with the biggest of them all being the relative performance of last year’s dominant Bassett and the resurgence of Thornden in Division One. But is it sustainable?

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We recreate the magic (or the tedium, if you’re of that persuasion) of the big end of year league AGMs, not least for Tom’s benefit since family duty called him away. Would things have ended differently if he'd been there?

Before the AGM reviews, we discuss the emergence of a Hampshire tennis player in the professional world tour - will 2026 be the year that Ringwood’s Toby Samuel cracks the code on the tour? We’ll be watching.

And the men’s winter doubles leagues are far enough along that we get a sense for who this winter’s winners should be, who’s having a tough time, and who really are the Absolute Men in Division Six.

Find the Bournemouth Echo story about Toby Samuel here:

https://www.bournemouthecho.co.uk/sport/25672639.hampshire-tennis-player-secures-career-high-atp-ranking/

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We’re back in Hampshire this week, where Annual General Meetings are in full swing at clubs around the county. We’re excited for the Southampton LTA and Apsley AGMs set for December 3rd. Will anyone run against the incumbents for leadership positions? And what happened to Tom’s committee position, which he was voted into last year? He’s not a happy chappy.

Before that, there’s a bit of news from around the county, including a green light for building Winchester’s Acoustic Wall. Surely a candidate for Jamie Noyce’s next band (he plays the songs that open and close the show).

And we go deep on the SL:TA Mixed Doubles winter league to see how things are shaping up a third of the way through winter.

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Join us on the podcast's first ever Road Trip, which takes us to Indiana, deep in the US Midwest, where we find young Hampshire tennis star Magda Kornijczuk at the very beginning of a two-year tennis journey at the University of Indianapolis.

Magda shares her journey from the UK to the US, some of the cultural differences, the intensity of college tennis, and the supportive environment of her team. She reflects on her training, competitions, and the importance of mindset in sports. Magda also offers advice for aspiring players considering college tennis in the US and shares her experiences with team dynamics and rivalries.

You can follow Magda’s tennis journey on Instagram using the handle @magdakornijczuk

You can follow the Indy Greyhounds on Instagram with @uindytennis

Go deep on the team and the university at https://athletics.uindy.edu/sports/womens-tennis

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