December 13, 2025
- Riya Bharwad wins the LRTA Under 21 singles at Radley
- Godsill and Glasscock (almost!) win the Doubles Double
- CAMBRIDGE WIN AWAY AT MIDDLESEX!
- National League on Friday (17th)
- East Anglia Cup, 28/6/25 at Newmarket
- East Anglia Cup+ 2025 @Newmarket
- FLM IRPTA National League, Division 9: Final
- Leamington Visit Redux
Cambridge @Prested National League, Division 1
For those of you who don’t follow the excellent CURTC Twitter feed @cam_tennis, Cambridge had a great result last night at Prested. Alex won 6-3 6-3 against Steve Taylor, Ed won 5-6 6-0 6-5 against Claire Fahey and Cambridge won the Doubles 8-5. Next up RTC at home on 23rd November. Should be a great evening of tennis so mark those diaries!
Inter Livery Real Tennis Competition – 17th October 2017 at Queen’s Club, London
Bernie Carpenter & Miles Buckingham
24 livery Companies were represented at this Competition which was graced with the presence in the afternoon of HRH The Earl of Wessex, Patron of the Tennis and Rackets Association, who is a keen player of the game. Throughout 2018, HRH intends to play every real tennis court in the world (some 50 with 27 here in the UK) to raise funds for the Duke of Edinburgh’s award to help young people in their careers. To find out more about this historic undertaking and how you can help, please contact Challenge@DofE.org.
This inaugural competition was a great fun event. Our thanks go to our organiser Michael O’Dwyer of the Brewers’ Company and our main sponsor Psigma Investment Management and also to our other sponsors Pol Roger for the Champagne, Latimer Vintners for the wines, Fonseca for the port and Play Brave for our new white tennis shirts. Lastly, David and Miles would like to thank all our fellow competitors who play this truly wonderful game, Ben Ronaldson and his great team of markers and the Queen’s Club staff and their Chairman of Tennis, Simon Mansfield.
Plans for 2018 competition are already well in hand and you can be sure that David will be embarking on a recruitment drive for more Distillers representation!
David Carpenter, 23rd Oct 2017
Brodie Cup: Jesmond 2-3 Cambridge
It’s a long way to Jesmond but well worth the effort as the Club have made huge strides recently in securing the future of their magnificent Court and our favourite pastime in the North East.
In the match itself, after victories for the 2nd Doubles (Michael Firth and yours truly) and 2nd Singles (Andy Smith), Captain ‘Guy’ Kirk sealed the victory with a 2 set win! 1st Singles (Julian Stafford) and 1st Doubles (Rupert Grose & Gerald Smith) faced tough challenges handicap-wise but left it all out there on the Court.
Some Collages of 4 of the 5 matches (click on thumbnail for larger version…)
 Richard MacAlister (Jesmond) & Julian Stafford |
 Andy Smith & Nick Thompson (Jesmond) |
 Guy Kirk & Stephen Goodhart (Jesmond) |
 Gerald Smith & Rupert Grose and Simon Johnston & Alan Douglas (Jesmond) |
and a Google Photos Gallery of the above images and more!
Next up is no more travelling, as Queens visit the Home of Real Tennis on November 19th.
The Sox is Back
After 2 and half hours on Court at Queen’s Club, the Doubles pairing of our very own Bernie (Sox) Carpenter (Distillers) and Miles Buckingham (Glovers) managed to win the inaugural Inter Livery Company Real Tennis Tournament Psigma Cup.
We are scouring the internet for pictures…
Giraffe Club Tournament, October, 7th
Congratulations to Jim & Andrew and India & Rufus!
Cambridge vs Petworth House, National League Division 1, Wed Oct 4th
The Division 1 of the National League returns to Grange Road on Wednesday as Petworth House in the form of Tom Durack & Louis Gordon visit. This year Cambridge are represented by Ed Kay who will be looking to avenge a crucial defeat last year to Tom and ‘newboy’ Alex Evans who will have his hands full with the hard hitting Louis. The Doubles could be critical….. As it was last week when Ed & Alex got Cambridge’s Div 1 season off to a winning start at the Oratory. It all starts at 5.30pm, and all support would be most welcome!
Update: Alex & Ed win the deciding Doubles following Ed’s victory over Tom Durack
Cambridge v Newmarket, Sept 30th 2017
It is always a pleasure to visit Newmarket to enjoy the marking of Andrew Knibbs, the Brian Blessed of the Real Tennis world, whose volume is matched only by the dramatic intensity with which he calls the score. “FOOURT-TEEEE” (delivered at high pitch) “ FIFFF-TEEEEN” (with a downward swoop to a basso profundo of disappointment).
But when not admiring Andrew’s marking, how was the tennis? We fielded a large group of players, with handicaps ranging from the 80s to the 40s, so play started early, with Gillian Moore against Philippa Wells. The comment from Andrew was: “A close match, but Gillian made the better decisions.” Since the score went 10/2 to Gillian, her perspicacity must have been very much in play.
Ben Geytenbeek got 4/1 up against Newmarket’s Jamie Robertson, (putting an awful lot of balls in the net at first), but then allowed Jamie back in, to finish 9/10 down.
Joe Zygmunt was helped by his opponent Bill Mackintosh’s habit of just getting the edge of his racket to in-coming balls, thus gifting Joe at least 6 or 7 more-or-less free points. Ben’s leftie serve was helpful too, in taking him to a 10/5 victory for Cambridge.
Catherine Stewart was (I believe) making her foreign-match debut against Henry Edwards, who first tried to bribe Ken the marker by scattering copious coins at his feet, and later took advantage of his advancing years by having a lie-down (Catherine following suit, followed by Ken….). At 1/5, Catherine got in her stride, showing true grit to reach 8/9. This galvanised Henry into actually running for the ball at least three times, but Catherine had no mercy for age, and took the match 10/9.
By now the scoreline was 3/1 in Cambridge’s favour. The doubles match, however, did not go our way. Husband and wife team, Jeremy and Linda Fairbrother, had great difficulty finding any serves to bother their opponents Ian Lindsay and Jeremy Barnett. In both sets, games crept up level to 3/3, and then, in both sets, the home team pulled ahead to win: Newmarket 6/5 6/3.
The final match involved the two players with handicaps in the 40s, Ken Smith (wearing his Newmarket hat) against Howard Mason. Ken romped ahead to 5/0, 6/0… 8/0! His spinning serves, and fine use of the dedans corners, were proving deadly weapons. It looked like being a whitewash, but at 9/0 Howard found some serves that worked, and Ken, tiring and spooked, began to make mistakes. Howard started to win points and deuces; and won the next three games. Could he scramble up the mountain all the way? Alas, no, it was too steep by this point, and Ken stopped the come-back to win 10/3.
So the end result was a very fair draw, 3 rubbers each, with an entertaining mix of tennis, psychology, and cunning – plus a good lunch too.
Linda Fairbrother
CURTC v Old Rugbeians
The 2017/18 season got off to a competitive start against Old Rugbeains with a hard fought draw, 2 all.
The top doubles pair of 2 unrelated Firths, John and James, looked to be coming a close second against Oliver Buckley and Richard Bray when they were 5-3 down in the final set. In 2 closely fought earlier sets, shared 6-4, there was plenty of entertaining and high quality doubles. John and James regained their team work and clinched victory 6-5 in the last.
The second doubles match featured an all Cambridge affair of Stuart Laing and Simon Hirtzel for Rugby against the new pairing of Vix Harvey and Miles Hember. This also went to the final game in the 3rd set with Simon finding the Dedans to win against a chase of better than 2 yards.
The two singles were not quite as dramatic with Gerald Smith losing in 2 sets and Malcolm Howlett playing strongly winning in two to make sure the overall match was drawn.
The viewing gallery was put to good use for a delicious lunch provide by Katherine Firth – related to 2 of the players – and as always the Rugby match was very entertaining and played in excellent spirit.
Many thanks to Kees, Peter and Alex for organising and marking with their normal good humour.
Michael (Firth)
Thank You!
Kerry, the girls and I would like to thank you for the very generous gifts we have received. We were all totally over whelmed by each and everyone of you who attended either Friday or Saturday or both, and everyone’s kind words of encouragement they all mean a lot to us. We have settled in quickly to our new home and hoping the club will re-open on or around the 4th September. If any of you are visiting the north please pop and say hi.
I would personally like to thank the committee for giving me the junior role in the first instance and all the members who have helped me grow to my new position of head pro. With special thanks to Kees and Peter for all of their mentoring over the past 14 years.
Scott, Kerry, Darcie and Eadie.
CURTC Tayabali & White Champions League starts Tuesday, September 12
The Winners of the 5 T&W Singles League Divisions go head to head for CURTC bragging rights Schedule, Results…
UPDATE: Congratulations to Tayabali & White 2 – Simon White {c} / Guy Kirk / Duncan Hannay Robertson / Tom Hartley / Stuart Miller – who are the Winners of the 2017 CURTC Tayabali & White Champions League!!
Lottie Fullerton, Oxford University Tennis Club
Dear Members,
It is with great sadness that I inform you of the tragic death of Lottie Fullerton. Lottie was the Ladies Blues Captain of the Oxford University Real Tennis Team in February this year; those of you who follow our students will remember that Lottie was a well loved member of the Oxford team on more than one occasion. She will be greatly missed. Read More
The 2017-18 Graduate Cup
There are some significant changes to this year’s Graduate Cup including dates, eligibility, pricing and groupings for the draw.
***Entries close Saturday 7 October 2017***
The Graduate Cup is the CURTC’s premier handicap competition, first played in 1875. Below are the key dates, eligibility criteria and rules of the tournament.
* Eligibility
Over 18
Open to players with non-provisional handicaps
Results recorded against 4 different opponents since 1 June 2017
* Key Dates
Closing date for entries: Saturday 7 October 2017
Group Stage matches: Saturday 14 October 2017 – Saturday 2 December 2017
Last 16, Quarter Finals and Semi Finals: Friday 12-Saturday 13 January 2018
Grand Final: Saturday 17 March 2018 (Finals Day, sponsored by Hannay Robertson Financial Services)
* To Enter
Please sign up HERE: Maximum 64 spaces
* Payment
Senior members will be charged a one off court fee of £32 which will be debited from their Club account in the week following the closing date. For the knockout stages and finals, court fees will be added to members’ accounts in the usual way. Student players do not pay court fees but are expected to make every effort to play their group matches in a flexible and efficient way. Marking fees for the finals are sponsored by Hannay Robertson Financial Services.
* Format
The draw is for 64 players. There will be 16 groups of 4 players.
Players will be ranked in handicap order and divided into four divisions. A draw will take place and a player from each division will be drawn into each of the 16 groups, providing a representative for each of the four divisions in each group.
The Pros will, on request, block book courts for entire groups to play in one session.
In the event of a draw, group winners will be determined using the following criteria (in order): most matches won, most games won, fewest games lost, coin-toss!
The Group winners progress to the knockout stage of the tournament which will be drawn. There will be no cap on the maximum difference in handicaps.
All group stage matches are to be played between Saturday 14 October 2017 to Saturday 2 December 2017. Players are responsible for arranging their own matches.
Each match is “first to 8 games”, to be played off handicap and 40-all, not deuce and advantage. Results where the handicap difference is greater than 10 will not be input thus protecting the stronger players who progress to the knockout phase.
Before entering please ensure that you will be available to play ALL 3 of your group matches before the group stage ends on 2 December 2017. If you fail to play matches you disadvantage your fellow group members!
We strongly encourage members to book all their matches by the end of October.
The 16 group winners from the group stage will contest 3 rounds of the knockout competition on Friday 12 and Saturday 13 January 2018, which will produce our two finalists. These matches will be arranged by the tournament organisers.
The Handicap Committee will review the handicaps of the Group winners prior to the start of the knockout phase of the tournament.
The Grand Final will be played on Saturday 17 March, Finals Day sponsored by Hannay Robertson Financial Services. The tournament winner will also be eligible to enter the National Handicap Tournament in the autumn.
A group winner unable to play in the knockout stage will not necessarily be replaced with the runner-up from the same group. Rather, the “next best” runner-up from all of the groups will be selected using the following criteria (in order): most matches won, most games won, fewest games lost, coin-toss!
In the event that an issue(s) arises that is (are) not covered by the rules above, the matter will be decided by the Handicap Committee whose decision will be final.
The 2017 Earthworks Cambridge Doubles League
Please let us know if you are interested in playing in the Earthworks doubles league (details below).
The 2017 Earthworks Cambridge Doubles League will commence at the start of October and finish early December. The team format will be the same as the Tayabali & White singles League except each team will only play each of the other teams once (i.e. not home and away) and as each evening will be for a total duration of 2 hours (6 p.m. to 8 p.m.), with each player on court for 1 hour 20 minutes, we suggest the provision of food and beverage will not be necessary.
The scheduling of match days for the various divisions is below.
Monday – Division 1 (Below 45)
Tuesday – Division 2 (45 – 55)
Wednesday – Division 3 (55 -65)
Thursday – Division 4 (65 -80)
Each team will play in 4 matches. On a given match day 3 of the 5 team members will be selected (by their captain) to compete. Each player will compete in 2 doubles matches ie with each of his/her two team mates against his/her opposite number. Each match will be off handicap and will be “the first to win a set to seven games”. All matches will be marked, the cost being £14.50 per person per evening includes marking & court fees
Please sign up HERE
With best wishes,
The CURTC Pros
A Fond Farewell to Scott & Kerry
An amazing array of cakes made the Hazard end of the Blue Court even more hazardous than usual on Saturday as we said farewell to Scott who is off to take up the position of Head Pro at Jesmond Dene. Of course we are sad to see Scott and Kerry go but it is great to see the progress that Jesmond are making to safeguard the future of their wonderful Court and Club.
Click on the image below for a better view…
ps We will be visiting Jesmond over the Bank Holiday weekend at the end of May to see how they are all getting on!
The Green Court in a New Light
Our fearless Senior Treasurer has installed an LED light on the Green Court. Note the the way the colour of the wall above the Penthouse changes from left (old lighting) to right (new light).
CURTC is grateful for the support of our Sponsors…
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…and Supporter!
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Giraffe Club: CURTC Alumni
You Told Us….