December 5, 2024
A long but highly successful day culminated in Richard Bowers (70) winning the Christmas Tournament final at 10.15pm, taking the match 6-5 against Emma Lord (67). The group stage started early in the morning, and 30 competitors each played two singles and two doubles matches over the day. Handicaps ranged from 25 to over 70, and a special mention must go to Andrew Petrie (25) for competing despite massive handicap adjustments in favour of his opponents. In one match, a handicap difference of 42 meant his opponent received +30 while Andrew owed 30, had only 1 serve, was banned the tambour, banned chases worse than 3, banned hazard chases when playing off chases, and had to concede the service end after 1 chase!
Group winners went through to the knock-out stages, which produced semi-finalists Richard Bowers (70), David Hope (65), Emma Lord (67) and Charles Rowland-Jones (70). Richard and Emma won through to contest the final, which went to 5-5 and was eventually won by Richard at 10.15pm.
Many thanks to John Trapp for organising such a great day of tennis.
The CURTC National League Div 5 team of Jimmy Campbell, Oli Watson and Matt Barr took on the MCC on Sunday December 8th, coming through in a decisive 3-0. Jimmy and Matt won in straight sets against Ronald Paterson and Christopher Hopton of MCC 6/3 6/2 and 6/3 6/3 respectively, while it took Oli three sets to dispose of his opponent Simon Martin, 6/3 3/6 6/4. A good time for Watson to score his first win in a year. Jules, Captain of the Varsity Men’s team this year, scored the matches.
A veritable cohort of CURTC members headed off to Lord’s on December 8th, taking the day 5-1.
Full results:
+ Terry Gardner (65) and Pat Humphrey (63) beat Robert Rhodes (55.2) and Phil Devlin (49) 6/3 6/5
+ Dave Isherwood (62) and Robin Faux (59) beat Peter Brunner (59.8) and Clive Picton (53) 6/1 6/2
+ Peter Morrison (54) and Gerald Smith (48) beat Stuart Glyn (50) and Iain Harvey (50.8) 6/1 6/1
+ Keith Beechener (44) and Jeremy Davidson (51) beat Nick Carew Hunt (47.4) and Peter Ashton (50) 6/5 6/5
(Jeremy Davidson stepped in for an extra game when one of our team failed to turn up: they thought it was Sunday!)
+ John Firth (34) and Jimmy Campbell (29) lost to Isabelle Duncan (39.8) and Paul Brown (37.2) 3/6 6/2 4/6 (our own Paul Brown was playing for MCC).
+ Jeremy Davidson (51) and Rory Davidson (36) beat Nick Abelson (51) and Nick Davidson (41.6) 6/5 5/6 6/5
(three family members on court: Jeremy’s brother Nick playing for MCC)
Scott Blaber and James Watson scored a decisive win against Queens, with straight sets victories in both singles matches and an 8-6 win in the doubles.
The next match for the intrepid pair will be on January 19th, away at Petworth. The next home match will be on January 25th, against MCC. Check the court bookings for the times and come along to watch some exciting tennis.
In what had already been a very busy weekend (see previous updates), Cambridge hosted RTC on Sunday December 2. Ten senior members took on the visitors, and eventually triumphed 9-7.
The CURTC team was made up of Ian Barkshire, Keith Beechener (match manager), David Hope, Christie Marrian, Charles D’Oyley, Andrew Petrie, David Pimblett, Gerald Smith, Paddy Ward and Gary Weller. This stalwart bunch faced Oliver Buckley, Tom Carew Hunt, Tim Church, Simon Edmond (match manager), Peter Flood, Robert Frost, Stephen Goss, Virginia Myer and Owen Saunders from RTC.
CURTC hosted Oxford for an inter-club match on Saturday December 1st. Cambridge was represented by Smuts Beyers, Linda Fairbrother, Kate Kirk (match manager), Dominick McOmish and Dominic Simpson. The results seesawed between Cambridge and Oxford, levelling off at 2-2. In the last game of the fixture, Kate Kirk defeated her opponent 3 and 0 to seal the win for Cambridge.
The CURTC team of Scott Blaber and James Watson notched up a win against Petworth on Friday November 30th. Our boys took two straight sets singles wins and cleaned up in the doubles, winning the fixture 3-0.
Ladies’ Morning runs every Friday from 10am to 12pm. A social game of tennis
Leave a Reply