I thought you would all like to know that I successfully completed the London marathon on 23 April, for which so many of you sponsored me. You will recall that fun day back in January when I organised a “racketathon” and played many of you over a six hour period. Thank you very much to all of you who sponsored me.
The marathon itself was a fantastic experience with thousands of people lining the whole route, shouting and screaming everyone’s names as they ran past. I’ll never forget the moment when I turned the corner onto Tower Bridge with the towers gleaming in the sunlight, a sea of runners bobbing in front of me and a cacophony of noise surrounding me. The first half was OK, but the miles thereafter seemed to tick by ever so slowly. The final five miles were really tough, but I kept up my pace despite having to swerve round those walking, throwing up or collapsing in front of me! In the end I was the 13,187th to cross the line (out of c.40,000) and just managed to squeeze under four hours (3:59:19), which I was well-pleased with, especially after such an interrupted training period in the weeks before.

Thanks again to everyone who sponsored me. If you haven’t and still want to sponsor me, the site will be open until 23 May – check out my Just Giving site:
www.justgiving.com/fundraising/Neil-Stutchbury

Neil

CURTC AGM @6pm on Thursday April 27th followed by the Captain’s Challenge when Jimmy ‘The Beard’ and Amanda ‘The Hat’ will battle in the 2nd (hopefully) annual match between our Varsity Captains. There will be refreshments!

The Club has a number of interesting matches coming up including a visit to Prested on Saturday, May 6th. World Champs Claire & Rob Fahey are now the Pros at Prested. Please SIGN UP if interested.

…Deciding rubber in the 2017 Bathurst Cup Final UK vs Oz. Thanks to Savannah Poolman for a Live Feed!!
Congratulations, Oz and Commiserations UK. Looks like it was an epic final!
Thanks to everyone who kept us in touch via tweets, live feeds, carrier pigeons, f’book…

The 20-29s category tournament was held over the last couple of weeks, with just 3 entries (the bearded wonder was incapacitated after his trip to Krakow). In the round robin Matt Shaw topped the group, with Charlie D’Oyly second. However, in the final Charlie managed to overturn his loss in the group stage, winning 8-4.  

Cambridge’s permier league team travelled to Hampton Court last Friday to take on the team currently topping the table.

World number 5 Chris Chapman (who was owing 15) beat Ed Kay 5-6 6-3 6-2. Jamie Giddins continued his imperious form to beat Nick Hatchett 6-4 6-4, to ensure Cambridge took the tie.

Next up for Cambridge is the world champion pairing of Rob and Claire Fahey, away at Holyport on 4th April.

Following that, Cambridge’s will be hosting Manchester on Thursday, 13th April starting at 4:30pm in the Regular season finale. Please mark your diaries!

All support is most welcome as Cambridge continue to press for home court advantage in the knock-out stages!

Prested Hall Real Tennis Club are holding an Open Championship for Category F handicap players, that is players with a handicap from 50 to 59, on the weekend of the 25th and 26th of March, and some on Friday the 24th if you can make that.

So far as possible, matches will be the best of 3 six game sets and will be in a knockout draw. Claire and Rob Fahey (World Champions and all-round nice people) are running it and have offered to help players travelling from eg Cambridge with a considerate match time. There is a good bar which does good food, and a swimming pool we can use between matches. They can even arrange accommodation for you.

Entries should be emailed to rt@prested.com NOW as the closing date is imminent. Cost is £34 (£22 for 28 and younger) payable now or on the day.

CURTC will be playing the Queens club in the Pol Roger trophy final, starting at 10am on Sunday 12th March at Hampton Court Palace. Read More →