T&RA Newsletter 2014 E by Chris Davies

T&RA Newsletter – Easter 2014

hief Executive Update

The Association has marked the retirement of Howard Angus, with a splendid retirement dinner jointly hosted by MCC. An even sadder occasion was the passing of Sir Mervyn Dunnington-Jefferson Bt, whose contribution to Rackets could fill the entire newsletter – over 600 turned out in his honour at his Memorial Service at St Luke’s. The period has also seen the Eliminator Process, with Camden Riviere emerging as the Challenger to face Rob Fahey for the World Championship in Melbourne. A fantastic encounter is expected with Cam dominant in the last 12 months but evergreen Rob always times his form to perfection. The Amateur Singles also saw Matthieu Sarlangue become the first Frenchman to win the event, whilst Jamie Douglas and Peter Wright reclaimed the Doubles title, after a two year fallow period.

attermull Cup The winners of the first stand-alone Cattermull

cup were Rugby 3 (Hugh Pemberton & Rupert Derham) won this excellent competition beating Bryanston (Stephen Panke & Peter Brunner).

Will Hopton has continued to dominate the UK Rackets Singles, securing his second British Open and leaping so high as to worry near-earth orbital satellites. In the Public School Doubles, praise to the professionals to produce such talent at all age groups, with Eton taking the honours overall – and the Mark Faber Cup. Tony Morales and Charlie Braham secured the top prize after a couple of scares in earlier rounds. St Paul’s came through to win the Junior Colts and prevent an Etonian whitewash, although Harrow pushed them all the way. The Westgate affair cast an unfortunate shadow over the week; but something which can be overcome. An increased entry to the Schoolgirls’ Championships was only surpassed by the standard continuing to improve –congratulations to Lea van der Zwalman (Clifton) and Eve Shenkman (Altrincham); worthy winners. Finally, a thrilling end to the Open Doubles which saw victory for ATB & Christian Portz.

Full reports on the following are available on the T&RA website

ritish Junior Under 18 Handicap

Georgie Willis & James Bargent won their way through to the final which turned out to be a great match. James raced ahead early on but then Georgie came back and almost managed to square the match at 5-5. However it was to be James’s victory coming out on top 6/4 to take the title and the trophy.

eacourt Silver Racquet

Our grateful thanks as always go out to John Higney of Purrunna who has generously sponsored this event for the past 18 years and who also provided every junior that entered with a T-shirt. Also congratulations to Oscar Fountain who overcame 10 year old Max Jones in the ‘B’ final.

Congratulations to Adrian Kemp from Essex, via Paris, who travelled to Hayling Island as a qualifier, won the qualifiers and the main event without dropping a set.

mateur Open This year’s Amateur Open Singles top four seeds had two distinct styles on show.

The semis started with a marathon between Matthieu Sarlangue (2) and Peter Wright (3) - Matthieu came out the winner in 5, but it could have gone either way. Jamie Douglas (1) and Luke Danby (4) met in the second semi to do battle, and as expected there was some heavy hitting going on. Luke had his chances and took a set, but Jamie prevailed. On to the final, and on paper Jamie had the edge, but he would have been very aware of Matthieu (then only 19) taking Julian Snow to 6/5 in the fifth after over 3 hours in the 2012 final. The first two sets were nail-biting and went to Matthieu 6/5, with both players having minor leads along the way. In the third set it was even up to 2 all, and then Matthieu managed to move away enough to close out the third 6/3 to become the first Frenchman in its 126 year history to win the Championship. The three sets had taken 2½ hours, and as always Jamie was very generous in defeat. Tournament Director, Alistair Lumsden, presented the trophy and the Pol Roger to Matthieu and thanked all concerned, including Queen’s and of course Neptune. We should also mention the exceptional marking from Andrew Fowler, who showed exceptional skill during this match (including the ability to shrink from 6’4” to under 5’ in very short order).

close match. The first set was nip and tuck; 2-2, 4-4 and 5-5 but Penny Lumley’s match temperament proved crucial as Holyport took the final game of the set. They coasted to go 5-1 up in the second set. Bebb and Seymour Mead hauled themselves back to 4-5 but were unable to maintain their momentum. In the first singles tie, Horatio Carey and Simon Shenkman displayed skill and determination but Carey was able to up the tempo at crucial times to win in two sets. The second singles was a high octane affair with two young players showing their huge talent. The world’s number six Rackets player, Richard Owen, who has only just taken up Tennis, was too strong for Charlie Braham in the first set cruising to 6/1; his forcing and volleying were particularly eye-catching. Braham found his feet in the second set and with greater consistency and rhythm pressurised Owen but at 4-4 the Manchester student went up a gear to take the match in relative comfort. 17 year old Robert Shenkman can rarely have faced such pressure with the outcome of the match riding on his young shoulders. Holyport’s Tom Freeman was in total command of the first set which he took 6/2. Manchester’s hopes were in the balance but Robert played confident mature and nerveless Tennis to win the next two sets 6/3 6/2 to set up a grand finale. So often the Field Trophy finals have been wrapped up before the first doubles have had a chance to make a worthwhile contribution. The match was marked by some fine rests and extraordinary trading of volleys by Ed Popplewell and Adam Holloway at the net. Mark Openshaw-Blower’s many years of experience came to the fore in his battle from the back of the court with Holyport captain John Evans. Manchester rarely looked in trouble winning 6/4 6/3 to take the tie for Manchester, their first major win in a national trophy. It was a great day of Tennis and bonhomie and a fine nd advert for the 2 Division competition.

ol Roger Final

ield Trophy Final

The tone was set by the doubles pair of Holyport’s Robert Peel & Penny Lumley and Manchester’s Jamie Bebb & Mark Seymour Mead in a

Queen’s Club beat Cambridge. Team Captain, Chris Herbert, has the cup; his team enjoy the champagne!

enry Leaf Cup

This year's Henry Leaf saw a change of format, opening the tournament up to both amateurs and professionals, whilst removing any handicap limit. It was decided that those who chose to play would be representing their school and hence amateur or professional status was redundant, The tournament is now also open to all schools and we welcome entries from all over the UK. It was also decided to change the format to a best of 3 set knockout tournament and with ten solid entries and a wonderful host court in MURTC, the stage was set for an exciting weekend of top doubles. The top four seeds managed to proceed to the semi-finals, although the Wellington pair of William Maltby and Nick Harris were unlucky to lose to Charterhouse in the quarter finals. The Charterhouse pairing of Adam Dolman and James Acheson-Gray went on to lose in three sets to Harry Eddis and Horatio Carey of Eton, in the other semi-final, the home court knowledge of David Sloane and Matty Ronaldson of Canford proved just too much for the Oratory pairing of Paul Knox and Chris Herbert as they succumbed 5/6 5/6 in an entertaining semi. The final was a tumultuous affair. Eton raced to a 6-1, 4-0 lead, with Eddis and Carey on impeccable form. It wasn’t until game 12 that Canford eventually found their feet. With Sloane defiant in the galleries, Ronaldson started to find his range and an hour later Canford led 5-4 in the deciding set. After a tense final game Canford managed to hold on to win 1/6 6/5 6/4. It was a tremendous final played in great spirit and our thanks goes out to all those who took part over the weekend.

The fourth started tightly, with Hopton on the ropes and needing to win the game. Despite this pressure, he pulled out a 6-2 lead before ATB levelled and then nudged ahead to 8-6. This inspired Hopton who surged back to 13-8, and then the game 15/8, and reduce the overall lead. ATB now needed to close out the match and led 4-1 and then 6-2 in the fifth. Hopton rallied but it was ATB in the ascendency to lead 11-4. Hopton needed to dig deep and fought back to 10-11 – and then carried the momentum to 14-11. ATB clawed back two points and then made 14-all – Hopton called a set to three. ATB had championship point but it was Hopton who remained calm, holding his nerve and the game 17/16, reducing the deficit to two games to three. The sixth game was tense but it was Hopton who had the momentum, leading 8-6 and then 10-6. ATB fought hard, just needing one more game; the packed gallery was animated and noisy. However it was Hopton who kept driving forward taking the game 15/12 and levelling the match at three-all. ATB started well in the final game holding a 10-7 lead, but Hopton wasn’t finished, levelling to 10-all. After three and a half hours either player could win, and they inched closer 11-all, and then 12-all. But it was Hopton who reached 14-12 and his own championship point which he didn’t waste; winning the final game 15/12 – and recovered the Open Championship he had won in 2012.

If you are interested in playing in the Henry Leaf next year, please contact the T&RA or Adam Dolman on adamdolman@yahoo.co.uk

Hoppy takes off

pen Singles Final

Was this the greatest Open Singles Final ever? World Number 3, Will Hopton, clawed his way back from virtual defeat, saving a championship point, and then defeated World Number 2, Alex TitchenerBarrett. Alex Titchener-Barrett (ATB) started strongly establishing a 8-6 lead and then 11-6. Will Hopton responded with a powerful winner to close to 9-12 but ATB’s lead was too convincing and he took the first game 15/9. He carried this momentum into the second game, leading 7-2 and then 13-5, before closing out 15/5, to lead two games to love. Hopton responded in the third taking an early 8-3 lead before ATB pegged him back to 9-all. ATB continued to drive reaching game-ball, 14-9; Hopton responded, closing to 14-12 before ATB closed out the game 15/12 – and establish a three games to love lead.

A fantastic match with top class Rackets and a packed gallery on a Sunday afternoon. Former World Champion, James Male, presented the prizes and Will Hopton will return to Chicago very content with the richest prize in Rackets outside the World Championship, having showed he can recover from what seemed an impossible deficit. Thanks as ever to generous sponsor, Robin Geffen of Neptune Investment Management.

adies British Open Singles

Claire Vigrass impressively retained her title for a fourth consecutive win. In the final she beat Alex Brodie (formerly Kurkjian) by three games to love, though the first game was tight. This final immediately followed the plate final in which one of the youngest

competitors, Shinan Zhang, from Malvern College, beat the most experienced competitor, Sally Jones, by 2 games to 0. In the morning group matches, Claire,(in group A), and Alex, (in Group B), each won all their 3 matches, the crucial tie being Alex’s win 17/14 15/7 over Karen Hird in Group B, which effectively decided who would have to play the holder and strong favourite, Claire, in the semi-final. Claire and Alex, as group winners, went top and bottom respectively in the knock-out draw, so the semi-final line-up was Claire vs Karen, and Alex vs Sarah Vigrass, who was runner-up to her sister Claire in Group A. The 3rd and 4th players in each group went into a Plate knock-out. In this Sally Jones beat Charlotte Bawden, from Marlborough College (and granddaughter of the great John Thompson) 2 games to 1, and Shinan Zhang beat Chey West, a P.E. teacher from Malvern College, 2-0. In the plate final, Sally led 13-6 and 14-9 and twice more served for the first game, but Shinan fought back courageously to win the game 17/14 and served steadily in the second, which she won 15/5. It is good news that schoolgirls were allowed to enter this event.

excellent rallies, but the holder was always in control, served really well, and put away some glorious classic Rackets winners. Alex’s game continues to improve and she should in no way be discouraged by the score line of 15/12 15/5 15/5. The overall standard of play in the Ladies Open continues to rise year by year, and the top 3 or 4 players are producing exciting rallies of real quality.

The final was the best of 5 games, and Alex did well in the first game, catching up from 6-12 to 12-12 in 3 hands, but Claire got back in, and served out for the game. The second and third games contained many

1st string Jamie Giddins (Cambridge) bt Max

Seely (Oxford) 15/13 15/3 15/1 2nd string Edmund Kay (Cambridge) bt Henry Faber (Oxford) 15/8 15/6 15/10 3rd string Tom Elliott (Cambridge) bt Ben Graves (Oxford) 15/4 4/15 15/8 15/10 4th string Freddie Kalfayan (Cambridge) bt Johnny Beale (Oxford) 5/15 15/9 15/11 15/6 1st string Giddins/Kay (Cambridge) bt Seely/Faber (Oxford) 15/4 15/5 15/3 2nd string Elliott/Kalfayan (Cambridge) bt Graves/Beale (Oxford) 15/7 9/15 15/10 15/8

Claire beat Karen 15/7 15/2 in the first semi-final, serving a very effective length on her service, which earned her 8 points in both games. In the second semi-final, both Sarah and Alex served much better than were able to take serve, but Alex scraped by in the first game 18/14, Alex getting 15 of her points on serve to Sarah’s 13! Again in the second game Alex won 10 points on serve to Sarah’s 7, Alex winning the game 15/10 to earn once again a go at Claire in the final, as she did last year.

xford vs Cambridge

choolgirls’ Championship Clifton’s Lea van der Zwalman in action before collecting the Under 18 award

Under 16 Girls Winner Eve Shenkman presented with the Judy Angus Cup by Judy Angus

ublic School Doubles This season’s Championships were once again as exciting and hard fought as ever.

Eton dominated the finals of three of the four tournaments, winning the 1st pair, 2nd pair and Colts titles. Their one loss coming at the hands of a brilliant and exceptionally talented St Paul’s pair in the Junior Colts Final. The Eton 1st pair, Tony Morales and Charlie Braham had come into the tournament undefeated all season and it was therefore a surprise for many that they stuttered in reaching the final. Two games to love down in the first round to Winchester and victory after a seven game thriller in the quarter-final against Cheltenham meant they had their share of scary moments. The Final was surprisingly much easier, and a convincing four games to one victory over a spirited Harrow pair gave them the Championship. This also meant that Eton won the Mark Faber Cup for the best all round school during the Singles and Doubles Championships this season.

Second Pairs Winners G Loup and E Rowell

What a wonderful week of Rackets particularly for players and supporters of Eton. First Pairs Winners Charlie Braham and Tony Morales

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O Junior Colts Winners A Engstrom and N Hughes with runners up T Loup and B Brooks

Colts Doubles U16’s winners G Nixon and R Giddins

pen Doubles Championship

Sunday the 13th April 2014 was a marathon of sporting events, the Masters Golf tournament, the London Marathon and a FA cup semi-final all taking place on one day. But most importantly at the Queen’s Club, the climax of the Rackets season was coming to an end as they hosted the final of British Open Rackets Doubles Championships. At two o’clock, four players graced the court to battle it out in a best-of-seven format to become the champions. On one side, Mike Bailey was partnered by one half of the current World Doubles champions, James Coyne and on the other side the ex-World Doubles champion, Alex Titchener-Barrett had paired with Christian Portz. This was to be potentially a tantalising match - two of the biggest hitters in the game on opposite sides, each partnering with one player who has exceptional hands whilst the other, is one of the up and coming rising players of the game. What made this more fascinating was the fact that Coyne and Bailey seeded four, had knocked out the current holders, Snell and James in a seven game thriller on Friday night whilst TitchenerBarrett and Portz, a new partnership and whom were not even seeded, had disposed of Foster and Hue Williams (the current British Amateur Champions) with ease in the quarter finals and then went on to beat the number two seeds, Stout and Gooding convincingly in the other semi.

The match started with ATB/Portz winning the toss and electing to serve. Having served the opening serve as an ace they were duly put out with Coyne coming in to serve the first hand. He served three rollers, so common on the Queen’s Club court, however at 3-1 lost his serve and Bailey only managed to add one more point to the tally. ATB/Portz capitalised on this and with the serve which is so important in doubles, closed the game out with a run of thirteen points in a row to take the game 15/4. Game two started and ATB/Portz only managed 2 points before losing the side and Coyne and Bailey came in for a run of five points with Bailey achieving most of the points on his serve. With some hard hitting and extremely steady play from Portz, ATB/Portz regained the advantage and moved to 7-5 lead. After both sides were put out twice and they both exchanged points to level at 10-10, Coyne came into to serve and moved to a 14-10 advantage. Serving for the game, ATB/Portz dug deep and a mistake from Coyne in hitting the tin, they lost the first hand. Curiously ATB/Portz called for a new ball and Bailey stepped up from the right hand side of the box and served a roller to Portz; second game 15/10 to Coyne/Bailey.

together six points for 6-0 lead. But again Coyne/Bailey couldn’t string a point together and before they knew it were 8-0 down. Again poor serving and strong combined team play by ATB/Portz allowed them to come in again and steal points and at 12-7 they closed out the game 15/7 to become the new British Open Doubles Champions.

Christian Portz and Alex Titchener-Barrett Winners of the Open Doubles Championship 13 April 2014

liminators for the 2014 World Championship Challenge

Despite the best attempts of the weather, Camden Riviere beat Tim Chisholm. Meanwhile Steve Virgona and Bryn Sayers needed three matches to split them, although it was Steve who came through. In the Final Eliminators at Chicago, it was Cam who battled through, seemingly having an answer to every question posed by Steve on his home court. The ultimate prize is the opportunity to take on World Champion, Rob Fahey, in Melbourne on May 6, 8 and 10 – the stage is set! L-R Finalists James Coyne, Mike Bailey, with Tim Cockcroft, & Winners Christian Portz, Alex TitchenerBarrett The third game started and it was clear which side wanted this Championship. ATB/Portz immediately returned to the box and raced to an 8-1 advantage. However, once again, Coyne/Bailey couldn’t accumulate the points needed to apply pressure only adding two to their tally. At 11-6 to ATB/Portz this game was looking to end quite quickly, however Bailey and Coyne held in there and recovered to serve at 613 but once again couldn’t capitalise on the server’s advantage and added just 2 more points before TB/Portz closed out the game 15/8. The fourth game was won with strong variation and power serving by Portz. This accompanied by the power of Titchener-Barrett and also utilising a lot of mistakes by Coyne, most notably in hitting the tin this was the quickest game and they took it with ease 15/3. In the final game, the ATB/Portz were put out immediately but Coyne/Bailey couldn’t put a run of points together and lost the side. ATB/Portz pulled