The 50’s, 40’s and 30’s Category Tournaments were compressed into a single weekend and came up with some exciting tennis and three new names to go on the CURTC Honours boards.

Youth vs Experience in the 50’s Final

First up were the 50’s where Giles Holliday and Simon Godsill emerged from Group B to face David Pimblett and Joe Betts in the semi-finals. Notice the perfect Senior/Student representation! Simon was not overawed by the 8 point handicap disadvantage to take an early lead and looked like an upset was on the cards. But David decided enough was enough and upped his consistency to book his place in the Final. The other semis was an all-Student match-up where Joe did not let Giles get into a rhythm with his often lethal leftie serve. So this meant the Final was a rematch between David and Joe which David had edged 6/5 in the Group stage. This time the score line was the same but the winner different!
The afternoon saw the 40’s take to the courts. Again the handicaps did not prove a reliable guide as the three groups were won by a 1st seed (Ben Geytenbeek) a 2nd seed (Rupert Grose) and a 3rd seed (Angus Todd) with Graeme Menzies completing the semi-finals as the best runner up. Angus edged Rupert in the third 8/7 of the tournament to earn the right to play Ben in the Final. By this time everything was hopelessly behind schedule but the Pros managed to juggle some court bookings to complete what proved to be a lengthy final as Angus edged home in the 4th 8/7.

Angus Todd & Ben Geytenbeek

Sunday dawned and the 30’s took to the courts to attempt to end further behind schedule than the 40’s. (They succeeded!) The two groups saw the top seeds (Josh Elliott and Jin Seok Lee) advance comfortably along with Leo Sanitt from Group A. Group B saw three players end up with a single win with Men’s Varsity Captain Ben Craig advancing on games one. It should be noted that Ben showed exemplary diplomacy in losing to the Giraffe Club Chair, Andy Smith! The first semi went to Josh but the second produced an upset as Ben overcame Jin 6/4 to reach the Final.

Josh & Ben

The match, while not as long as the 40’s Final, still kept the 30’s comfortably behind schedule as Ben pulled off another upset 8/5.