The Winter Singles competitions were completed in April and congratulations to Ann Newport and John Howard for winning the trophies after defeating Philippa Christov and Chris Midgley respectively.
The annual Wing Plate tournament took place in May and the winners after a great afternoon's tennis were Andreas Whelan Merediz and Julia Kurzeja. Little did we know at the time that this would be the first of many triumphs for Andreas this summer!
The Open Tournament Finals Day was held on Saturday 18th July. In the matches that were played on the day Andreas won both Mens Singles (against Tom Brewis) and Doubles in partnership with Chris Midgely, against Alan and Jonny Cardy. Both matches went to three sets and provided great entertainment for the spectators. The Mixed Doubles was won by Carolyn Edwards & John Howard who defeated Ann Newport & David McWha, also in three sets. On Monday evening the Ladies Doubles Final saw a titanic battle between Geri Cummins & Nuala O'Connor and Steph Harrison & Mayuko Akiyama. After two tie-break sets and in the gathering darkness, Geri and Nuala won a champions tie-break 10-7 to clinch the title. The Ladies Plate was won by Sarah Cecil in a close match against Ali Cardy, and the Mens Plate went to David McWha for the second year running after Ollie Chan was forced to concede.
Thanks as always to Graham Gamble for organising the tournaments so efficiently and to everyone who provided food and helped with the post-match BBQ. The final final - the Ladies Singles between Ann Newport and Carolyn Edwards - is scheduled to take place on 26th July.
The Summer League season started with the welcome news that our Veterans 2 team achieved promotion in the Winter. Congratulations to captain Steph Harrison and all her players.
Steph is also now captain of the Womens 1st team and they are having a good season in Division 1 West. Unfortunately a couple of teams have dropped out of the league, so the team will not play as many matches as expected, but currently they sit in 2nd place in what is now a 6-team league. But fewer league games have been offset by more cup matches and the team reached the Middlesex Cup final where they came up against a strong team from Riverside Northwood on Club Finals Day. It's the first time for several years that a club team has reached a county cup final, so congratulations to Steph and her team.
The Womens 2nd team currently lie 6th out of eight teams in Division 4. The team has much to play for in its remaining matches and every set looks likely to count. Sadly captain Philippa Christov broke her arm in a fall in a match at Brentham and is now leading from the sidelines.
The Womens 3rd team are having a great season under captain Ania Haskins and are currently top of Division 6 with one match to play. They recently achieved a great win over 2nd placed Will to Win Chiswick and look strong favourites for promotion.
The Mens teams have found the going a bit harder this year after the loss of several regular players from last season. Mens I look to be in a fight to avoid relegation from Division 2 with the outcome likely to go down to the wire on the last match of the season. Best of luck to Rob Blundell and his team.
Mens 2s are going well in Division 5 and are currently 2nd in a very tight league. Again every set will count as Damian Tambirasa and his team look to bounce back after an unlucky relegation last summer.
Mens 3 are finding life hard in Division 6 and are currently at the foot of the table. But a strong finish to the season could see Peter Saunders' men stave off relegation. Adam King's Mens 4s are in 7th place out of 8 in Division 9 and defeated local rivals Whitton in a crucial match on the hottest day of the year.
Good luck to all our teams for the remainder of the season and huge thanks to our team of caterers for home matches. It seems that Twickenham has quite a reputation on the 'circuit' for both the quality of the food we offer and the contents of our fridge!
Away from competitive tennis, our social sessions continue to be busy at weekends, but it would be good to get more players down on Tuesday and Thursday evenings. Hopefully the combination of Wimbledon and summer weather will tempt more people to come down and join in. Chris Davis ran a successful and enjoyable Friday evening tournament in June and thanks to Guy Pearson for cooking up a delicious paella. Thursday and Friday daytime social tennis continues.
The junior tennis programme has been very busy in recent weeks, not least with their own tournaments which have been expertly organised by Andrea Costello. Holiday tennis camps are also taking place over the summer.
Eight separate events were staged with finals on four different dates to accommodate everyone's availability. Here are the results in age order:
U8 Boys & Girls Competition : Cormac Henry beat Oscar Mo 10-5
U9 Boys & Girls : Elise Jimenez beat Patrick Henry 7-3, 8-6
U9 Box League Results : Boys & Girls Matthew Taylor won his group box league with 70points and Rocco Yellen with 51 points came 2nd
U12 Boys & Girls : Oscar Midgley beat Jacob Elley 1-4, 4-2, 4-0
U14 Boys : Noah Goalen beat William Thomas 6-4, 6-3
U16 Boys : Noah Goalen beat William Thomas 6-1, 6-3
U18 Boys : Sam Derbyshire beat James O'Farrell 7-5, 6-4 (that was the best match this year with fantastic rallies, a display of drop shots, lobs chasing lobs and carrying on a bravely fought point time and time again!...)
U18 Girls: Shelby Rowe beat Freya Connor 6-4, 6-7 (8-6), 6-2 (another nail biting contest between last year's girl finalists!)
Earlier in the summer, The Road To Wimbledon event ended up with a super match between Noah Goalen and Joshua Breadmore (6-3, 7-5 to Noah) Tennis leaders accreditation has been taking place in July and we currently have four 14 -16 year olds working towards their certification.
Off the courts, thanks are due to Paul for repairing benches and putting up new nets; and to JJ for maintaining the off court areas. Andrew and Gloria Franklin have made a wonderful job of the memorial garden and it looks fantastic at the moment. We are engaged in dialogue with local residents over some of the issues around our potential application for court lighting.
And let's not forget, in all the activities of the summer, we have been awarded Tennismark status by the LTA. Congratulations to all involved who worked hard to achieve this national recognition of good practice.
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