Finals weekend, as always, was a great event. The standard of play was very high with nearly all the matches being very closely contested, with the final score not reflecting the quality – and length!- of the rallies. Special mention goes to the marathon Ladies Vets Final : 7-6, 4-6, 7-5, won by Ailsa Fraser and Sam Williamson and the Boys U12 Final : 7-6, 7-5 won by Oliver Mills.

It is always good to see the Juniors and Seniors competing on the same weekend; Sunday saw the total spread of ages with both the Super Vets (Over 60) Mixed Final and the Under 10 Singles Final. The stand-out feature to my mind was the Juniors play. All the competitors looked very accomplished with powerful, consistent hitting with variety of strokes. I followed the U16 Boys match and if you were for some reason only able to see the ball but not the players, then you would never know that it was Juniors rather than Seniors playing. They were a credit to themselves and to the coaching team.

Congratulations to all the players, especially to those who won two Finals : Debbie Ryder, Stuart Lamb, Sam Williamson, Will Jones and Chloe Tarling.

Finally, our thanks go to Zana for organising all the tournaments; it must be a massive task. Also thanks to Debra Norton and her team of helpers for providing lovely refreshments throughout the weekend.

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Bank Holidays come thick and fast at this time of year and we had our third of the season on Monday 27th May. Another great turn-out, 10 men and 15 ladies which gave everyone a lot of good tennis. The ladies section had joint winners in Wendy Day (playing an American for the first time) with Gill Stoney. Debra Norton was runner-up. The mens section was won by Andy Cholerton with Mike Thornley and Chris Cole as joint runner-ups. Congratulations to them and especially to Gill and Chris for their third “podium finish” of the season. Many thanks to Cath Pearson and Alison Jameson for providing the lovely tea and a special thanks to Caroline Reid who happened to be the only player sitting out for the round after the tea interval; she quietly got on with all the washing up and clearing away!

Public holidays are rather close together at this time of year, so on Monday 6th May we were once again enjoying an American Tournament; 27 people this time, showing how popular they are. Does the photograph of winners look familiar? Gill Stoney was again the best lady with an average of 5.6 from each round of 8 games, just edging out newcomer Sam Rush on 5.5. Cath Pearson was 3rd. Chris Cole was a clear Mens winner with an excellent average of 6. Mark Hill came second on 5.17 with a tie for 3rd place between Steve Dunne and William Carlisle on 5.0. No Andy Cholerton in the winners group this time, for the simple reason that he was the organiser. Thank you Andy for taking that on. Thanks also to Ann Hanson and Joan Jones for supplying a lovely tea.

This Easter was the warmest for many years and gave us an excellent start to the American Tournaments this season – perfect weather and a perfect number of players : 24, 10 men and 14 ladies – which meant nobody had to sit out; we all played the 6 rounds of 8 games each. Andy Cholerton came out as the best male player, beating Mark Hill and Chris Cole by just one game overall. For the ladies, there was little doubt who would win – Gill Stoney returning to the club after a break of a few years because of injury. She only dropped 7 games out of 48 all afternoon – well done, Gill! Katherine Rogers and Susan Gilchrist were second and third in the Ladies respectively.

Gill’s success was one highlight. The other was, of course, the tea – maybe the reason some of us come. Many thanks to Linda Robson and Jackie Staunton for preparing it and to Ann Hanson and Sally Daniels who came to help set it out and more importantly to clear up afterwards.

It was the first American Tournament that I have organised – and it all seemed to go smoothly. Phew!