Club Finals Day 4 September 2022
The club held its Finals Day on 4 September and we were delighted to have matches across all tennis formulations, being Women’s Singles, Women’s Doubles, Mixed Doubles, Men’s Singles and Men’s Doubles.
rain and, as usual, we had a barbeque alongside the tennis. Play started promptly at 12 noon with the Mixed Doubles final on Court 2 and the Men’s Singles Plate final on Court 1. Both were tight affairs with Merriss Ratliff and Paul Olney narrowly beating Kath and Paul Curtis in the Mixed Doubles 3-6, 7-6 and then 10-8 in the deciding Championship tie break. In the Plate Rob Hildick beat Rob Garvey 6-3, 3-6 ad then 11-9 in the Championship tie break.
Next on Court 1 was the Women’s Singles final with Jo Horwood beating H Harding 6-2, 6-3. The Men’s Doubles final was not played as there was a Covid withdrawal so Simon Ashby and Nick Turner won this competition on a walkover.
Finally Paul Curtis and Paul Olney slugged it out on Court 2 in the final of the Men’s Singles Cup whilst, on Court 1, Kath Curtis and Emma Dickins took on Jo Horwood and Sarah Haynes in the final of the Women’s Doubles Cup. Again, both matches were close and went to deciding Championship tie breaks with Paul Olney winning the Singles Cup 3-6, 6-2, 10-4 and Kath Curtis and Emma Dickins winning the Women’s Doubles Cup 2-6, 6-4, 10-7. All matches were played in an excellent spirit and provided plenty of entertainment for the crowd.
Shirish Chauhan, the club Chairman, awarded the trophies at the end and commented on how it was good to have all these competitions being played and that our standard of tennis had risen in recent years – in no small part due to the help of our club coach, Ed Harwood. A special thank you to Paul Olney for organising the competition and Merriss Ratliff with the help of Kath Curtis for organising the womens competition.
The highlight of the day was, however, the outstanding barbeque cooked up by our own masterchef Simon Hammett. Special thanks are also due to Merriss Ratliff for her organization of the day and to Kath Curtis for supplying food and soft drinks.
We hope to increase the number of players participating in these club competitions next year and we invite everyone in the community who might be interested in playing (competitively or not) to contact us. There is no requirement to have played before and we are a friendly club catering to all abilities and ages.
Paul Olney
