Clearview ladies opened their 1999 National Club League programme with an exciting and narrow win over Cardiff on Sunday.

They entertained the Welsh club and won by the narrowest possible margin.

The match score was 3-3 and the tie was decided on a shoot out in which each of the singles matches was repeated with a single tie break.

Clearview won three of these four tie breaks and took the victory. It is a victory which could be vital in deciding which team is relegated.

The singles matches produced four straight set results with the two teams sharing the honours. Nicola Woodhouse was the Clearview No 1, and lost out to Jo Moore who is ranked 525 in the world 4-6, 4-6.

The Clearview No 2 was Bree Claderwood from Australia who was making her debut for the team. She is trained in Wimbledon by the former British Davis Cup captain Warren Jacques and was described by him as having great potential. Bree beat the Cardiff No 2 Lucy Collinson 6-2, 6-1.

No 3 for Clearview was the Essex player Lara Naqushbandi. She had played for the club many times as a junior and opened up her National Club League programme with a 6-4 6-2 win over Sarah Jones.

Georgina Dinham was at No 4 and hopeful of repeating an easy win she had over Jo Thomas last week. However, it is never as easy as that and she went down badly 2-6, 2-6.

So the teams went into the doubles level 2-2. The doubles failed to give a result as the honours were shared. Woodhouse and Claderwood won 7-6, 6-3 against Moore and Collinson, while Naqushbandi and Dinham lost out 0-6, 4-6.

With the match tied, the result was decided by a shoot out. Calderwood won 7-1, Naqushbandi won 7-4 and Dinham won 7-4. Only Woodhouse lost 3-7 to Moore so the tie went to Clearview.

Clearview manager John Tucker was well pleased with his team's victory which, prior to the day, he never expected.

The Cardiff team was not as strong as the nomination list had suggested. They now need only one more win to secure a place in next year's competition and equal last year's fourth place.

On Saturday they entertain Globe (12noon) who are likely to include Essex player Helen Crook. On Sunday, they visit Cumberland.

On Monday, they are home again against Loughborough. In the final fixture on Wednesday, they visit Edgbaston the favourites for the title.

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