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The Albany Tournament is our last American of the season. We had a full house of 28 players and it was great to have two juniors joining in. Both had a good afternoon with Oliver just missing out on the top place. The best comment on the day was when Nina went down to a really low ball and played a lovely winning volley. My neighbour said “Oh to be young and have knees like that”

Sam Williamson was the runaway Ladies winner with Paul Treacy and Pete Smith in a tie for the top Men’s place. This was the third consecutive Albany Tournament where Pete was a winner.

Thanks as always to Debra Norton and Ann Hanson who provided our usual lovely tea.

We had a full house for our Easter Monday American Tournament with our usual mix and match rounds of tennis. A great start to our American Tournament season, summed up by this comment from one of the players “Everyone was in friendly-competitive mode, with a relaxed atmosphere and healthy banter on court… and delicious cakes to revive us afterwards”. That sums it up nicely!

Cliff Church playing for the first time, scored a remarkable average of 7 games in each round of 8 games – well done Cliff! Sue White was the best lady player with an average of 6.2

The two Smiths Cup events were held on Saturday 2nd and Sunday 3rd April – the first time since 2019. The Ladies event on the Saturday was won by Sue White and Tessa Barrett. On Sunday, the surprise winners were Nick Ward and Andy Cholerton; surprise winners as Andy was a last minute stand-in and the pair had never played together before.

Thanks to Sue White for organising the Ladies and Chris Ezra for organising the Mens.

Here are some comments from Chris
“Just to say thanks to every pair who played today, a very strong field with some great quality tennis and played in a great spirit. Congrats to the winners Nick Ward/Andy Cholerton! Special mention to James Carlisle & young Roni Asp who had to put up with formidable opposition! Well done both of you.

A big thank you to Kath Dyer who helped in the kitchen & supplied us with the teas & coffees as well as washing & clearing up!”

Finals weekend was, as always, full of great tennis with some genuinely enthralling matches. The closest fought one was probably the first : the Mens Singles match which went to a third set with no-one really able to predict the outcome at that stage. It was Peter Grant who won… the first of his remarkable six (yes, that is six) successes! He played and won three on Saturday and still had the stamina to play and win another three on Sunday. Many congratulations Peter! Jane Vincent also had a busy weekend, winning all four of her finals.
They had certainly earned their drink at the end of Saturday.

The Ladies Doubles match was very entertaining with great “gets” and long, long rallies, even producing some gasps of astonishment from the spectators as the rallies unfolded.

Our Albany tournament on Bank Holiday Monday took place in disappointingly gloomy weather … but there was nothing gloomy about the event. 27 players enjoyed a full afternoon of good tennis (and a nice tea, courtesy of Debra Norton) with nobody that baffled by the handicap scoring system, designed to ensure that everyone could feel they did well. Our winners were Linda Robson and Pete Smith (who also won it the last time it was played back in August 2019). Well done to them and to the runners-up. There was a two-way tie for second place for the Ladies : Debra Norton and Ailsa Fraser. The men’s side produced a three-way tie for second place : Chris Iles, Tom van Klaveren and Greg Smith.

Yo might like to read the post from the 2019 Albany tournament. That took place on the hottest Bank Holiday Monday on record and the post ends by saying the next American tournament would be on Easter Monday 2020. If only that had been true!