Handicap tournaments : entry now open

Tournaments

From Zana : I am writing to invite you to attend the 2019 Handicap Tournament which I hope you will enter.

If you have never entered this tournament before please give it a go as it is a lot of fun and a great way to meet some new members and play alongside members you may not have paired up with or played against before.

These are knockout events but the stronger players are handicapped by the scoring rules which aim to ensure a broadly equal chance for all players and an opportunity for the lower ranked players to enjoy the thrill of playing in a Final.

Entries welcomed from Senior Members and Senior-Junior Members.

Entry deadline: Sunday 24 March 2019.

Entry Fee: £2.00 per person per event.

As this is a handicapped event everyone has a chance of reaching the Final so please do not enter if you know you are not available on Finals Day 7 July 2019 (Reserve Date in case of bad weather: 14 July 2019).

Players organise their own matches from April through to finals day at dates/times convenient to them.

The draw will be published on the noticeboard at the beginning of April so that entrants can start to organise their matches.

Click here for Handicap Entry Form

Tournament results 2018

Tournaments

 
Well done to everyone who won through to the finals of their competition and who gave the spectators a very enjoyable weekend of tennis. The standard of tennis was very high and it all took place in an atmosphere of friendly but fierce rivalry.It is always great to see the Juniors and Seniors playing at the same event.

The stand-out individual performances were from Will Jones who repeated his achievement of last year winning the Mens Final and the Mixed Final with Issie Barfoot,also Sam Cawood, aged just 11, who gave a very creditable performance in the U18 Boys final against Will. The best match of the weekend had to be the Mixed Final – so close and such a high standard!

I thought we must have seen the longest match of the Finals on Saturday, a two-hour marathon in the U18 Girls Final, but this was surpassed in the Ladies Vets Doubles on Sunday, lasting close on 2 1/2 hours! A real contest of “cat and mouse” with many of the rallies lasting 20 – 30 strokes

Our Chair, Paul Treacy, did receive one complaint : “There are two very good matches going on at once, and I can’t decide which one to watch!” Now that is a nice problem to have!
 

Event Winners Runners-up
Mens Singles William Jones Peter Grant
Mens Vets Singles Peter Grant Daren Carter
Mens Doubles Peter Grant & Stuart Lamb Paul Kemsley & David Pharo
Mens Vets Doubles Peter Grant & David Pharo Steve Dunne & Chris Iles
Event Winners Runners-up
Ladies Singles Samantha Kurlej sarah Henbrey
Ladies Vets Singles Sarah Henbrey Cath Pearson
Ladies Doubles Samantha Kurlej & Isabel Williams Elaine Leitch & Sam Williamson
Ladies Vets Doubles Debbie Ryder & Jane Vincent Elaine Leitch & Sam Williamson
Event Winners Runners-up
Mixed Doubles William Jones & Issie Barfoot Paul Kemsley & Samantha Kurlej
Mixed Vets Doubles Peter Grant & Jane Vincent Jeff Wollen & Sally Grave
Mixed Super Vets Doubles Chris Iles & Sally Charlton Derek Carder & Elaine Leitch
Event Winners Runners-up
U10 Singles Andre Fripp Ben Slade
Boys U12 Singles Freddie Schlag Joshua Mortimer
Boys U14 Singles Sam Cawood Matthew Tarling
Boys 10.1 – 10.2 Ali Peacock Matthew Reed
Boys 10.1-10.2 Plate Max Bremner Lucas Buckley
Boys U18 Singles William Jones Sam Cawood
Event Winners Runners-up
Girls U14 Singles Isabel Cann Nina Carter
Girls U18 Singles Chloe Tarling Georgie Charles
Girls 10.1 – 10.2 Singles Ciara Cassidy Willow Cockerill
Girls U18 Doubles Georgie Charles & Chloe Tarling Willow Cockerill & Emily Pagan

 
For a printable version of the results, click here
Photos from the weekend are in the next post.

Season finale – August American tournament

Tournaments

A staggering 38 players turned out for the final American Tournament of the summer, which meant that an unprecedented 7th round had to be slipped in to ensure that all entrants played at least 4 rounds. The weather stayed dry throughout and the action was fast and furious all afternoon. With so many mouths to feed, the tea ladies had to pull off something of a five loaves and two fishes performance, but they prevailed, as they always do.

Roger Barnacle and Mark Hill tied for top male player, both achieving an average of 5.50 games won on the day. The ladies’ competition was just as closely fought, with a three-way tie for first place between Sarah Henbrey, Kath Pearson and Katherine Rogers, all with an average of 5.75 games, with Georgina Riches just behind on 5.25 games.

A photo of the day’s prize-winners is attached, with apologies to Chris Cole, who should be there as he was in fact joint runner-up with Peter Beyer and Andy Cholerton in the mens’ competition, with an average of 5.25 games. He is owed a bar of chocolate for his efforts.

Many thanks as always to William Carlisle for organising the afternoon.

Can you help with one day tournaments?

Tournaments

William Carlisle and his family have been running the American Tournaments for the past three years which has the knock-on effect that he can never go away over a Bank Holiday. He would now like to pass on the role to someone else, or perhaps a small group of people who could take it in turns to run each one.

William has written “The next American Tournament will be Monday 22nd April 2019. It is about time that someone else stepped forward to organise and run the one day tournaments. A couple of people sharing the task would be ideal. They are very easy to run and it is a good way to contribute that little bit extra to the club. Volunteer(s) should make themselves known to William Carlisle or Zana Fletcher.”

There are lots of us who regularly come to and enjoy the tournaments – perhaps one or more would be willing to give this a go.

Many, many thanks to William for all his hard work over the past three years.

Albany tournament 2018

Tournaments

15 players (8 male, 7 female) turned out, in incredibly hot conditions, to contest the Albany Trophy 2018. This was a really awkward number, which the computer programme didn’t like. What a pity there was not just one more lady to make it perfect. Maybe people were put off by the thought that it would be hard work. It was ! Many thanks to all those who did turn up.

There were winners, as there always is. Peter Beyer powered his way to a barely believable average of 4.8 games across the 5 rounds he played and Ailsa Fraser, who is becoming something of an Albany Trophy specialist, finessed her way to first place again in the ladies’ competition, with a superb average of 5.8 games won.

The last American Tournament of this year will be held on Monday 27th August. If you want to know what it’s like to be able to smile like Ailsa and Peter, get that date in your diary and be there !

Handicap Finals results 2018

Photo Galleries, Tournaments

Congratulations to everyone who won through to compete in the Finals of the 2018 Handicap Tournaments, especially to Cath Pearson who was once again a double winner. She retained the Ladies Doubles title, partnered this year by PJ Young and she won the Mixed Doubles with Darren Toes. She was nearly joined as a double winner by Chris Ezra. He won the Men’s Singles but just missed out on the Men’s Doubles, losing 31-28, 31-28 in a very close final. On one of the hottest days of the summer,it was an achievement just to play two matches!

Event Winners Runners-up
Ladies Singles Sarah Henbrey Katherine Rogers
Mens Singles Chris Ezra Mike Thornley
Ladies Doubles Cath Pearson and PJ Young Lynn McKenzie and Angela Redstone
Mens Doubles Jon Stiddard and Daniel Turner Chris Ezra and Oliver Wells
Mixed Doubles Cath Pearson and Darren Toes Alison Jameson and William Carlisle

Thank you to the umpires and Debra Norton and Ann Hanson for the delicious refreshments.

(To view as a slideshow, click on one image. For the next image, click right, for previous click left and to return click in the centre. For an automatic slide show click at the top of the image, the speed is controlled by the left/right postion of the click – left faster, right slower.
For more details please click here)

May day American Tournament

Tournaments

24 players (12 ladies and 12 men) participated in the Bank Holiday American Tournament yesterday, ideal numbers in some respects, since it meant that all courts were in action throughout the afternoon. Heatwave conditions, however, meant that as everyone had to play in every round, there were some very hot and tired people at the end of the six rounds. A delicious afternoon tea, prepared by Debra Norton, Linda Robson and Ann Hanson, did provide some very welcome respite at the midway point. At the end of it all, Alison Jamieson and up and coming young newcomer Andy McElligott were the clear and deserving winners, both amassing 5 more games than their nearest rivals. Next American Tournament is Monday 28th May.

PS from Katherine. William, who provided the text of this post wasn’t quite right when he said we had the ideal number of people available. We had 25, as William would have like to play but as the organiser he gallantly stepped aside.
And another PS : Yes, Andy is very tall!

Smiths Cup for Men

Tournaments

Seven pairs contested the Mens’ Smiths Cup on Sunday 15th April. Each pair played everyone else in a round robin format, based on rule changes which were trialled at the ATP Next Gen Finals in Milan last November. These included short sets of first to 4 games, with a tiebreak at 4-all, sudden death at deuce and no let on serves. This made for a fast and furious pace throughout the afternoon. Mark Hill and John Jillings emerged as worthy winners, winning all of their six matches, just edging out father and son combination William and James Carlisle, whose only defeat of the afternoon was a closely-fought 5-3 loss to Mark and John.

The group photo was taken before play