January 13, 2026
- 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 vs Petworth, Pol Roger Trophy Semi-Final
Ed Pearson and Jules Camp complete a 5-0 sweep for Cambridge in an exciting 3-setter.
On to RTC on March 12th for the Final vs Queen’s! Click for Video and Timings
Tayabali & White singles – Th’underdogs v T&W2
In the opening match of the Tayabali & White 2017 Cambridge Singles League for Division 3, Th’underdogs took on Tayabali & White 2 (there’s a Tayabali & White 1 with presumably better players in it somewhere above us)
First up was Neil Ruffles against the eponymous Simon White who managed to claw back from Neil’s killer serves with some skillful corner shots to take the second set and then the third set. Neil’s game seemed to suffer from some self-frustration as his grip on the game lessened, which only accelerated the slip. He managed to get on top of this but slightly too late to help secure the last set.
Next up was Robert Altham against Tom Hartley who both seemed to be taking it rather too lightly. Robert’s fantastic boasts from the mainwall corner of the service end meant the ball kept just dying out of reach from Tom. Robert took the first set 6-3. Tom eventually realised about halfway through the match that a mainwall nick shot around the last gallery line could stop this and it had the added advantage that it often gained a chase and this turned the match in his favour, and gave him the second set 6-3. Tom eventually took the final set also with the score of 6-3, making it 3-6, 6-3, 6-3 to Tom.
The final leg saw Alasdair Poore take on Guy Kirk who was pleased to learn he was spared any pressure for the match. However, this was not perhaps the case for Alasdair as he clearly cared passionately about winning his match. Guy’s relaxed air helped him gain a comfortable lead in the first set but Alasdair managed to pull himself out of his low spot and fought back bravely managing to hold Guy to five all in the second set. At 40-all, game, and potentially set and match point, Guy served, Alasdair returned, Guy shut it down into the corner and Alasdair was unable to fetch it back.
A clean sweep for Tayabali & White but a valiant effort and some fantastic food from Th’Underdogs
Th’underdogs (Alasdair Poole rec’r) v T&W2 (Guy Kirk serving)
CURTC vs Petworth, Semi Final of the Pol Roger Trophy…
… is this Sunday (29th) @CURTC. It all starts at 11am. The best of the best will be on Court so please come along to the Club and lend your support. (I’ve seen some of the squad practicing recently, they definitely need deserve all the support we can give them!). If you can’t make it to the Club, please follow along with the live stream and let us know how things are going via Twitter (@cam_tennis) or Youtube.
Jingle Bingle… It’s over….
…but not before we congratulate our final three ‘Leaders of the Pack’: Robert Doe, Keeler Mears & Peter Cowley (vrrrmm, vrrrmm..) along with Stephen Doel, the Social Elf aka Santa’s Pet. Hopefully there will be a bottle of wine prize for each of our four worthy winners. Stayed tuned for Easter Scramble planned for the err, um.. Easter vacation unless we can come up with a catchier/punnier name!
CURTC Crumbles at the last…
CURTC, 3-4, HHTC
Then it was on to the main business of the day, Lunch. CURTC match managers are a creative lot in the kitchen but Andrew & David pushed up the bar another notch with their menu of MacCheese+ and Focaccia followed by massive amounts of 4:3:2 Crumble. In fact CURTC now boasts two Crumble makers of the highest class so a Crumble Rumble is definitely on the cards.
Thanks are due to our sporting visitors along with Peter, Simon and Kees who not only marked but made sure the whole schedule made sense (Peter) and applied some key mid match repair to a recalcitrant calf (Kees).
Finally, some pictures of the lunchtime attractions…
Going, Going… (with matching forks)
Crumble Action Shot
CURTC Ladies vs Newmarket
On Sunday 15th January CURTC Ladies triumphed against Newmarket RTC 4 matches to 2.
We would like to thank Ian and the worthy Newmarket team for organising the day and hosting us.
Match results below.
- Olivia Chesser defeated Bill Mackintosh 8-7
- Lucy Barrett lost to Phillipa Wells 1-8
- Barrett & Chesser lost to Wells and Mackintosh 3-8
- Annabel Plews defeated Jeremy Barnett 8-2
- Amanda Murphy defeated Charles Granville 8-7
- Plews & Murphy defeated Barnett & Granville 8-5
Amanda
One more Court ticked off….
RTC @ Hampton Court
CURTC were hosted by RTC on Saturday and CURTC’s travelers did not disappoint. Andrew Petrie was first up and didn’t let losing the first set at 5-all, 40-all get in the way of some blistering tennis to win the 2nd set. Things got a bit nervy in the third set which crept inevitably to 5-all. But no more 40-all dramatics as Andrew crashed (yet) another one into the Dedans to put CURTC one-up. Next up was the em, err ‘experienced’ pairing of hips & knees in the form of yours truly and David Pimblett. A slow start followed by a good run saw us win the 1st set at which point we extended some generosity to our hosts by not really showing up in the 2nd set. But the 3rd set was ours without resorting to any of this 5-all nonsense.
Kate Kirk then took to the Court to give CURTC a 3-nil lead. Husband Guy teaming up with newly engaged Howard Mason were not interested in any 3 set nonsense as they won while only conceding a couple of games. Equally newly engaged Catherine Stewart was game enough to give our generous hosts a look-in but CURTC ended the day 4-1 winners.
Many thanks to our Hosts and Markers. It was my first (and hopefully not last) visit to RTC and I must say I found it one of the more challenging Courts on which to play!
The Giraffe Club Weekend 10-12 February 2017
The Giraffe Club Weekend
10-12 February 2017
Deadline for entries 27 January 2017
Friday evening: The Battle of the Sexes
Curtain raiser: exhibition doubles
Ed Kay (#1 Blue, 0 handicap) vs Claire Fahey (Ladies World Champion)
Drinks and nibbles
Free to Giraffe Club members, £15 to non members
Saturday all day: Giraffe Club Tournament
Round robin format, guaranteed three doubles outings
Nominate your partner or let us choose one for you
£30 per person
For Giraffe Club members
Saturday evening: Dinner at Trinity College
Black tie
£50 per person
For Giraffe Club members
Sunday morning: Tournament finals
Coffee and tea will be available
Free to all spectators
Join the Giraffe Club here
Weekend sign up form here
Jingle Bingle: Less than a week to go….
Your chance to start off 2017 as a certified Pack Leader is slipping away… But it’s not too late! The Jingle Bingle must end on January 17th (at midnight). Congratulations to Robert Doe, Peter Cowley & Keeler Mears who are the incumbent ‘Leaders of the Pack'(s)
Cambridge Ladies vs HHTC – Match Report
On Saturday I returned from my holiday back home in the sunny land of Oz and swapped mornings swimming at the beach for a dark wintery morning trip to the historic Hatfield House. We were welcomed heartily at the door by our wonderful host Martin. After a brief discussion about what to source from the wine cellar (a regular Hatfield tactic for later matches) he took to the court against Cambridge’s phenomenon Kate. Despite some excellent rallies, Kate breezed ahead and won 6-2 6-3.
The Kees Bus arrived during the game and brought Vix, who then faced off against Joe. He had clearly ignored good festive season advice to eat mince pies and instead played squash. This showed in the hard fought match with Vix, where he scrapped though 6-2, 6-0. A junior friendly exhibition doubles then took place between Kees, Bella, Vix and James while the rest of us tucked into a delightful lunch prepared by Martin which included CHOCOLATE CAKE!! Annie deftly avoided the wine at lunch and played an epic against Richard, coming back in the second set from 5-1 down to take the set and the match 6-5, 6-5.
With the jet lag starting to set in, I finally made it onto the court against the tricky serves of Peter. Despite a comeback in the second set, the late hour and the chocolate cake saw Peter triumph in the third set 6-3, 2-6, 6-4. We would like to thank Hatfield for hosting us especially Martin, James and Jon.
Annie staging an epic comeback against Richard
Amanda
CURTC Host The Dutch
CURTC, 5 – 2, The Dutch
Andreas & Charlie
Erik & Rogier vs JT & Julian and Florentine
*’finest’ ?? Ed
Neil Stutchbury’s Racquethon
Some of you may know I am running the London Marathon in April for Diabetes UK. I chose this charity because my son is Type 1 and he inspires me with the way he maintains his glucose levels while playing racquet sports (squash mainly) at a high level. So to raise awareness I thought I would do a “racquetathon” whereby I will try to stay on court for six hours and play as many people as possible, mostly doubles I hope! I have booked six courts (permitting doubles) from 9:30am-2:30pm on Saturday 14 January and I would really love it if you were to sign up for more than one court if you can! I hope each of the pros will join in too. I will provide cakes, sandwiches, refreshments etc to keep you all going. Normal court fees will apply and these will go onto your account as per usual, There is no extra donation required to take part, though obviously if you would like to donate then you can go to my Just Giving page and make a donation there: www.justgiving.com/fundraising/Neil-Stutchbury I really hope you can play.
Neil Stutchbury
Stop Press: only a few slots left!!
Bookings for Neil’s Racquethon on Sat, Jan 14th.
Congratulations Rob Fahey, MBE!!
from all of us here at the Home of Real Tennis
Christmas Tournament 2016
Robert Doe & Ginny Myer, CURTC’s 2016 Xmas Tournament Finalists
At the knock out semifinal stage Virginia (Ginny) Myer showed her excellent strokes and consistency to defeat the much-fancied Kate Mason (returning to Grange Road after a 10 year absence). Richard Bowers and Gillian Moore have done well in this tournament before; this year it was Richard’s turn to progress through to the semis. Tony Kennedy could not overcome Kate Kirk, even though Kate was hampered by her husband’s marking and Robert Doe continued to play extremely powerfully to beat Karen Pearce.
Ginny’s accuracy allowed her to beat the tenacious Richard Bowers in their match and Kate Kirk came so very close, but again Robert Doe’s strength won out (6-5).
In the final, there was nothing between the players. Robert served sidewall serves to great effect, with Ginny needing to volley the return of service, which she did with accuracy into the corners. Ginny served underarm twists to which Robert replied with forces at the dedans and at the mainwall. There were many excellent rests made more fascinating by the contrasting styles of the finalists. At 3-all Robert was able to steady his game, overcome his unforced errors and take the final three games and the Championship (6-3)…. The day ended with the Senior Professional taking the photo of the finalists above.
Kees
Jingle Bingle Update
There was a crash on the roof, some shuffling around the chimney and a few expletives drowned out by Cody’s barking. Eventually it subsided but then the door bell rang which set Cody off again. Warily opening it, I saw three recognizable shapes lurking in our front garden. Rudolph (for it was he) had that self satisfied look that those with red noses so often have and was prancing about doing some recognizable impersonations of a forehand (he switches the racket Lyons style to avoid the complications of a backhand). He proffered me a thumbdrive and gestured with a shrug of the antlers at Donner & Blitzen who seemed far more interested in the vegetation than demonstrating correct positioning for a return of serve. He muttered (as those with red noses are prone to mutter) that he would be busy for a few days but back in touch looking for a game in the New Year. I asked about his handicap, but was met with the reply that surely the other 8 and the big guy were handicap enough. Living in a neghbourhood where chatting with reindeer attracts funny looks even at this time of year, I promised I’d put his handicap into RTO and work out the odds for our game. Wishing them seasons greetings, I retrieved the dog and opened up the thumbdrive….
Congratulations, Mike, Anthony & Gillian, you are the ‘Leaders of the Pack’ in the early going of the 2017 JB!
CURTC is grateful for the support of our Sponsors…
 |
…and Supporter!
 |
Giraffe Club: CURTC Alumni
You Told Us….