Southport & District Tennis League
The Southport & District Tennis League is a mixed doubles league based in Sefton and the surrounding areas including Croston, Mawdesley, Ormskirk and Rainford. We run Summer and Autumn leagues and also a number of team and individual cup competitions – you can find more details elsewhere on this site.
Summer League
Our Summer League is competitive and played over 14 weeks starting around the end of April. There is promotion and relegation between the divisions, each of which usually comprise 8 teams and there are trophies for the winners of each division. Teams have 8 players (4 men and 4 ladies) and the matches all comprise two sets of mixed doubles followed by two sets of either mens or ladies doubles – this means that each team member plays 4 sets during a match. Matches typically start at 6.30pm at the beginning of the season and end of the season and at 7pm during the middle part of the season depending on league start and end dates and the corresponding times for dusk for those dates. More information is on our Adult League page.
Autumn League
Our Autumn League is still competitive but is played more for fun with no promotion and relegation – small prizes are awarded instead! Teams are allocated to “temporary” divisions based on how they finished in the Summer League but the divisions are smaller so that matches finish by the end of November (they start in September). Clubs can choose to enter all their teams in the Autumn League, only some or none at all. Autumn League teams have 4 players (2 men and 2 ladies) and, like the Summer League, the matches comprise two sets of mixed doubles followed by two sets of either mens or ladies doubles – again, each team member plays 4 sets during a match. Matches are normally played at 6.30pm on weekday nights for clubs with floodlights and during daylight hours at the weekend for those clubs without lights. More information is on our Adult League page.
Team Tournaments
Our Team Tournaments are all knockout competitions with teams of 8 (4 men and 4 ladies) and can be entered by any teams who also entered the same year’s Summer League.
The cups played during the main league season are divided up into 4 different competitions so that teams play against others of a reasonably comparable standard. These matches consist of:
- one mens singles;
- one ladies singles;
- one mens doubles;
- one ladies doubles;
- one mixed doubles
each team member plays in only one of these.
The Spartans Team Tournament (handicap)
We also have a further team tournament (The Spartans) which is played after the end of the Summer League season, can be entered by teams from any division and is handicapped to give all teams a chance. The format is again teams of 8 but in this case each player plays only two sets which will be either mens, ladies or mixed doubles. More information is on our Adult League page.
Individual Tournaments
We also run individual knockout tournaments (best of 3 sets matches) with the finals in July each year. There is quite a wide variety of events for all standards, the full list is shown on our Individual Tournaments page.
More Details
More details of all these events are given in our full league rules that can be downloaded from our Documents page.
Junior League
There is also a Junior League that usually runs from April to the end of July. This has separate categories for the different age groups from 10 and under to 18 and under. See the Junior League Page for more details.