The Ideal Christmas Present - courses start January 16^th

Still looking for a Christmas present for a Real Tennis player in your life?

£75 for a place on a 12-hour course with Kees. The course is suitable for all levels of player from beginner through to experienced player.

Each course takes place over 6 weeks in the form of a two-hour workshop.
First hour is ‘off-court’ with presentation of the week’s topic; use will be made of video footage of you playing to support teaching.
Second hour is on court ‘putting it into practice’. The course will cover:

Playing the game including tactics, strategy, movement about the court

There are two courses running on Tuesdays 6:30 –8:30 pm or Thursdays 12:30 – 2:30pm starting on 16^th January and 18^th January respectively and running for the next 6 weeks.

To reserve a place contact Kees by email or by phone 01223 357 106.

Make someone’s Christmas!

Cambridge 1 v Queens 1, January 4^th
(Fahey & Roxburgh  v   Bray & Matthews)

Tickets £5 galleries, £10 dedans ( a glass of wine from Alex Riley's selection included with your ticket)

6:00 pm start : Roxburgh versus Matthews
7:15 pm approx : Fahey(+14) versus Bray(+4)
8:30 pm approx: : Doubles

Going into this match, Cambridge 1 leads, not dropping a match this season. Cambridge 2 are currently level with Oxford 1 as both have played one match less they challenge Petworth 1 for second position in the league

The attached document gives you more details about the match.

Contact Kees to book your place - tel: 01223 357 106 or via email:

Christmas Coaching, January 2,3,4^th
A great chance for youngsters to try real tennis!

The club will be be running a series of introductory courses for 12 to 15 year olds early in the New Year. These cost just £10 each and will offer the chance to:

• Watch the professionals in action
• Learn about the game and its fascinating history and rules
• Enjoy a coaching session on court

Courses will run on:

• Tuesday January 2^nd 10:30 to 12:30 : 12 and 13 year olds
• Wednesday January 3^rd 10:30 to 12:30 : 13 and 14 year olds
• Thusday January 4^th 10:30 to 12:30 : 14 and 15 year olds

The attached booking form gives you more details about the courses.

To book a place or places just ring (01223 357106) or email

Boosting junior membership

We do hope that you will encourage your children, grandchildren or friends' children to get involved in our great game. The club is very keen to increase junior membership and family involvement and this is an exciting opportunity to do so. For more information, please refer to the attached leaflet. We look forward to hearing from you soon.

With all best wishes for Christmas

George Pearson and Kees Ludekens

Coaching classes for 12 to 15 year olds, just £10, running from 10:30 to 12:30 on three consecutive days

Twelfth CURTC Christmas Tournament, Dec 27^th

The popular Christmas Tournament, with its unique and byzantine format, produced its usual crop of surprises and happenings.

Jonathan Ellis-Miller, Jeremy Fairbrother, David Pimblett, and John Lees emerged as group winners from the preliminary round. Jonathan won 6-3 against Jeremy but the score was not indicative of the close contest with almost all the games going to 40-all. Next was the doubles with Jeremy and David, receiving a half-bisque (see http://www.irtpa.com/index.php/realtennis/tennis_rules/#HANDICAPS for an explanation of bisques and half-bisques), combining against Jonathan and John. Unexplicably Jeremy and David were 4-love up in games, and then 40-15 in the fifth game, when a chase was laid and Jonathan now on serve; two good serves made it 40-all, and then Jonathan served a fault, at which point David pounced and claimed the half-bisque, adding another fault to the serve, and winning the game. A classic use of the half-bisque. Chagrin and mortification were the least of the emotions on the server; one could use further expressions of emotion, but the author recommends you consult Roget's Thesaurus or http://www.yourdictionary.com/ for other words. David and Jeremy then mopped up the last game to win the doubles 6-love.

The singles between John and David went to 5-2 in John's favour before David pulled back two games and then lost 6-4.

The final scores with doubles games counting for half were David Pimblett 7, John Lees 6, Jonathan Ellis-Miller 6, Jeremy Fairbrother 6. At this point several of the finalists were looking round for the nearest lamp-post in order to re-enact the French revolution with themselves as the revolutionnaries and the tournament organizer as the hapless French aristo.

The photograph shows the eventual winner, David Pimblett, two seconds after claiming the half-bisque.

John Trapp

Cambridge 2 versus Petworth 1, December 7^th 6pm
(Woodman & McNaughtan  v   Wood & Durack)

Tickets £5 galleries, £10 dedans ( a glass of wine from Alex Riley's selection included with your ticket)

6:00 pm start : McNaughtan versus Durack
7:15 pm approx : Woodman(+4) versus Wood(+4)
8:30 pm approx: : Doubles

Curry at the Club after play had ended (extra £10) but you must book in advance.

Contact Kees to book your place - tel: 01223 357 106 or via email:

Ladies Real Tennis Association Handicap Tournaments, 1^st-3^rd December

Cambridge hosted the Ladies Real Tennis Association (LRTA) British Handicap Tournaments on Friday the 1st of December and that weekend.

26 ladies entered for the Div. 1 and Div. 2 Handicap Tournaments at the weekend, handicaps ranging from 25 to 60, and coming from a variety of courts, including Bristol & Bath, Paris and Fontainebleau.

Cambridge ladies all played well, particularly the students, with Charlotte Barker winning the Division 2 Singles, which last year went to Helen-Frances Pilkington. Charlotte, whose game was improving with every match, beat the very experienced Sheilagh Owens (who was giving away a 55-year age difference!) by 9/4, and then joined up with Sarah Sullivan from Australia, via Hatfield, in the Div.2 Doubles Final. This was a tight match, won in the end 9/7 by Liz Fisher and Fiona Hewson, another Australian, both from Hatfield.

The Div.1 Singles Final produced a thrilling game and high-quality, fast tennis. Helen-Frances played steadily to gain an 8/3 lead, whereupon Viveca Stewart raised her game, serving particularly well, and fought back to take the match 9/8. The Div.1 Doubles Final was a family affair, with Helen-Frances joining her aunt, Anne Balcerkiewicz, to play Viveca and her mother, Sara Reston. This was another entertaining game, which the Restons finally won 9/3.

This year marks the 25th Anniversary of the foundation of the Ladies Real Tennis Association, and on Saturday evening a special dinner was held by candlelight in the 16th Century Dining Hall at Magdelene College.

Thanks go to Simon Stokes for helping the pros with the marking, and to Linda, Pam, Svetlana, Claire, Sue, Jane and Louise's mum, for their help with accommodation and excellent lunches, which added greatly to the conviviality of the weekend.

Local sponsors The Answering Service sponsored the event.

Cambridge 1 versus Oxford 1, November 30^th 6pm
(Fahey & Roxburgh   v   Willcocks & Krznaric)

Tickets £5 galleries, £10 dedans ( a glass of wine from Alex Riley's selection included with your ticket)

6:00 pm start : Krznaric versus Roxburgh
7:15 pm approx : Willcocks versus Fahey ( world champion)
8:30 pm approx: : Doubles

Contact Kees to book your place - tel: 01223 357 106 or via email:

Field Trophy match vs Jesmond Dene (away)

A weakened Cambridge side had a close match at Jesmond Dene in the first round of the Field Trophy at the weekend, winning by 3 matches to 2.

In the first match, Hugh was playing young James McEwan, a promising student. Despite a very early start and a 4 hour drive, Hugh was in top form. With calm and controlled play and hardly an error, Hugh was too good for the youngster, and, although many games were close, this was a convincing start for us.

Second on were the new recruits to the side, Neil and Simon, up against an experienced home pair. With only one practice together the day before, Neil and Simon did well and a very close first set could so easily have gone our way. The second set was also keenly contested, but the loss of a couple of points at crucial times saw the home pair come out on top. Thanks to both Neil and Simon for playing, and the future looks good with such players coming through to these higher levels.

Burak followed, and gave the home team an exhibition of tennis at a level they admit to rarely encountering in Newcastle. His thoughtful play with varied pace and perfect length meant Chris was hard-pressed to win a point despite some good rallying. A cheer went up from the home supporters when he got to 30 in one game in the second set, but Burak quickly took the game and the match was soon over.

I was next, feeling very nervous about my first competitive singles in over two years. A one-sided knock-up with Richard powering shots into the corners did not help, and the first set was very tense. Losing this set after having good chances to win it did not help my state of mind, and at 2 all in the second set, the next game went on for ages with both of us having opportunities to take a lead. Luckily I won the game, and from then on, Richard seemed to tire and I was in some sort of control. What a relief it was in the end to win the match!

The final doubles finished off the match. Andrew had enthusiastically agreed to play despite now being so much further away in Windsor, and he and Charles looked an impressive pair in practice. They were up against Paul Hetherington, by far the best player in the Jesmond team, and Alan Douglas, father of our missing Jamie who was involved in county squash this weekend. Long rallies with amazing volleying and retrieving by both pairs suggested the match would be an epic, and it took quite a while for the score to reach 3 all in the first set. However both Charles and Andrew then seemed to find it hard to keep up this pressure, and, once unforced errors started to creep into their play, the home pair took control and came out comfortable winners.

It had been an exciting day, a first time of playing at Jesmond for some, and the result had gone our way. Thanks again to all who took part, and just a suggestion to Simon to set his alarm before 7am if he needs to be somewhere by 6.10am!

Cambridge 1 v Cambridge 2 - Nov 9th 6pm

Both Cambridge teams went into this fixture defending unbeaten records. The Blue court was cold, thus ensuring low bounces and high rewards for the floor game.

Neil Roxburgh (Camb1), pushed Rod McNaughtan, the Head Professional of the Burroughs Club, in both sets of the second string singles but did not manage to clinch either – Rod (Camb2) winning 6-3, 6-4. It seems very likely that Neil will soon get to where Rod is now - a rock solid scratch player.

A full dedans witnessed a thrilling encounter, when the Amateur Champion, David Woodman (Camb2), took on the World Champion, Rob Fahey (Camb1). Clearly, Woodman has benefited from playing against the very best last season. Now, he has the confidence to play with much greater patience - happy to rally on the floor and to choose the moment for his devastating force. The tennis in the first set was measured and very athletic, both players covered the court with great speed and achieved a number of incredible retrievals. This hard fought set went to Rob 6-4, but in the next, mainly due to the precision of his cross-court volley return of serve (usually cutting down to worse-than-a-yard) he quickly steamed ahead to lead 5-1. It was at this moment that David received the benefit of keeping the ball on the floor in the first set; Rob seemed to tire leaving David with the opportunity of coming back. David forced more and with great effect and Rob’s movement lacked its previous zip. The score was quickly tied at 5-all but, again, it was the World Champion who triumphed in the end – the final score was 6-4, 6-5.

With the scores level at 1-all going into the deciding doubles and then 4-all during the first to eight game set, the crowd was anticipating a repeat of the 7-all thriller of two weeks prior. No, not this time, Cambridge 1 didn’t drop another game and Rob and Neil, with some severe volleying, won 8-4.

Next match: Cambridge 1 (Fahey & Roxburgh) vs Oxford 1 (Willcocks & Krznaric) on Thursday 30th November at 6pm. Contact Kees to book your place.

Presidents Evening - exciting to the last

The first home Premier League match of the season was as exciting as we expected! Rod McNaughtan, for Cambridge 2, beat Roman Krzvaric 6-3, 6-2, then David Woodman just missed out to Spike Willcocks of Oxford 1 in a thrilling 3-setter of wonderful tennis that lasted well over 2 hours. The final deciding doubles went all the way to the wire, with Cambridge 2 finally winning out after deuce at 7-all.

Next match: Cambridge 1 vs Cambridge 2 on Thursday 9th November at 6pm. Contact Kees to book your place.

CURTC Autumn Leagues

Format
o Each fixture will be between two pairs
o Matches will be played off handicap, first to win 8 games
o At each fixture each player competes in a singles and a doubles
o At each fixture two points will be awarded for a singles win and one for a win in the doubles

Booking
o You are not restricted in who you partner over Autumn Season and you are encouraged to play with different partners each fixture.
o Each of the four leagues will have two pre-booked [two-hours] fixture time slots per week.

o Play as many or as few fixtures as you chose but you may only book up to three fixtures in advance. If you want to play more, thus increasing your chances of winning the league, you may book not more than seven days prior to the pre-booked fixture, thus giving other competitors a chance participate.

Handicap
o All members, handicap 25+, are welcome to take part
o There will be four leagues in separate handicap bands.
o Play in your league for the duration of the Autumn Season, even if your handicap changes to take you out of that league.

Prizes and fees
o The winner of each league will be the player with the most points at the end of the League Season and will receive a bottle of Prize winning Bubbly, courtesy of Alex Riley Wines.
o Court time will be charged at the usual rate - each player will be charged for one game of singles.

Cuppers

If you are somehow connected with a college (e.g. master, fellow, undergraduate, former member, gardener, porter or bursar) and have a full handicap, then you are eligible to play for the college in Cuppers. Winning college receive a handsome trophy.

Teams are between 2 and 4 players, and matches are played on handicap. If you are interested, then do sign up on the list on the noticeboard. Even if you think you are the only one associated with a college, do put your name down on the list , as there may be others from your college lurking in the undergrowth.

Past winners names needed for Honours Boards

John Trapp is organising the Honours Boards and really needs your help:

"Unfortunately the file containing all the illustrious victors of tournaments at Cambridge had died in a computer crash, and I have tried to work back from an older version. If you have won a tournament at Cambridge in the past few years, please check this table, and see whether your name is on it; if not, then please let me know which tournament you won, and when; if it is there, then please let me know if your intials are incorrect. Similarly if you know of those whose names are omitted, then please let me know.

"This is not an opportunity for you to claim your place among the roll of honour by deceit. Any dishonest claimants will be disembowelled, have their lands confiscated, and their families sold into slavery.

"The honour boards will be updated soon, and I would really appreciate your help in recording the rightful winners."

Table of past winners

John Trapp, email