Easter Newsletter 2013 by Claire Vigrass

T&RA Newsletter – Easter 2013

hief Executive Update

The World Doubles Challenge is on and will be played over two legs in April, details elsewhere in this Newsletter – but a very exciting time for the Rackets world. The Champions retained their Amateur crown in February but the Challengers look dangerous. The Open Doubles after Easter has a bumper entry as the new pairings jostle for supremacy for a future challenge. The Public School Doubles saw Eton and Harrow triumphant – but a great entry shows promise for the future – and to keep the boys playing when they leave school. Stay in touch via Facebook and Twitter. In the world of Tennis, there is change afoot at Holyport, with the T&RA, the Club and the current owner working hard to secure the future for the members. More to follow in the next few months, as this unravels. The new Markers’ Register will be online for the start of next season, adding a layer of professionalism to this important role – all a positive spin-off from the Club Professional Development programme. It is good to see new members joining the Association and the new membership card will be sent to clubs shortly after Easter for distribution. Finally volunteers are the heartbeat of the T&RA and my thanks goes out to the many unsung heroes at the clubs. Two worthy of special mention are Simon Talbot-Williams, who has put a huge number of hours into Holyport; and Ashley Lenihan, who has taken over the role of Child Protection Officer and is currently revitalising this important process.

21s/24s

Due to New Year's Day falling on a Tuesday, the tournament was held nearly a week later than usual so some of the younger players were back at school, which coupled with one or two high profile absentees made for a smaller draw at this year's championships. The early rounds belonged to Leon Smart who won through as far as was reasonably possible in both singles events and the doubles. Lewis dispatched those who sought a scalp despite nursing an injured knee, but fell short of both finals by 1 round. Michael reached the U21 final by beating Lewis, but he came up against an opponent just a little bit too experienced in John Lumley, who retained his title with a 6/0 6/3 win. Although John was the current U24 title holder, the top seed was Conor Medlow. Both players won their semis to set up the grandstand final. Extreme consistency in John, met a more expansive but error prone power game from Conor. Previous meetings had gone Conor's way but it was the consistency of John which saw him pull ahead in a

tight first set and eventually win 6/3. Frustration reigned in Conor's game and it might have made for a quick demise in the second, but with his back against the wall, Conor hit back from 5/2 to 5/4 inducing a few visible nerves setting in from John's game. True to form though, he showed his champion qualities and dug deep to win the second set 6/4 and retain the title. John and Conor paired up in the doubles and won a mismatched final against the Williams boys (not related) to win a comfortable 6/0 6/1.

ro Singles

The 2013 Rackets Professional singles competition was held this year on the highly regarded Haileybury school court. Considered by many to be one of the finest courts in the world, it was the perfect venue for one of the most prestigious tournaments in the Rackets sporting calendar. In the top half of the draw, Hopton made light work of his opponents and secured his place in the final without dropping a single game. The bottom half of the draw however was more fiercely contested. The rd semi-final between 3 seed Ben Snell (Queens Club) and six time winner, Mark Hubbard (Radley College) was a thrilling encounter. Both players were in sublime form and struck the ball magnificently. The quality of retrieving was astonishing and finally, after almost two hours of play, Snell secured victory and place in the final. Saturday afternoon also saw the Professional doubles competition. Defending champions and ex Gloucestershire County Cricket Club team mates Mike Cawdron (Haileybury) and Reggie Williams (Clifton College) played Ryan Tulley (Wellington School) and Andy Stout (Haileybury). In a high quality match, scores reached 11-11 in the final game. Despite some stubborn resistance from the Gloucestershire duo the challenging pair were able to overcome the defending champions. The full balcony on Sunday was treated to spectacular final. Both players were on supreme form, however the near pin-point accuracy of Hopton put Snell under constant pressure. Hopton managed to keep the upper hand and retain his title in straight games. W.Hopton bt B.Snell 15/3 15/6 15/6

S Open Camden Riviere won the title 6/2 6/4

6/1 and regains the US Open title, which he first won in 2009 when he defeated the same opponent, Steve Virgona. At 4/3 to Camden in the second set a 30 minute break was witnessed due to a leaking roof. For both players this was a chance to refuel and gather their thoughts. Unfortunately for Steve, it was Camden who was able to capitalise the most and Steve only won 2 more games in the match. Riviere played very well indeed and it starts to make the race for the world championship eliminators very interesting. There are five more ranking tournaments this year to be played.

nter-Schools Doubles Championship and handicap Championship

A fantastic showcase of the great work that clubs are doing with schools. Over 22 schools participated and 115 pupils in total. A great weekend of Tennis and an even better look for the future. Seniors – Final

Ben Robinson &George Buckley (Radley) bt Charlie Braham & Rory Giddins (Eton) 6/5 Colts - Final Eton bt Radley 8/5 Under 14 - Final Radley 1 bt MCS 6/1 Under 13 - Final St Hughs bt Perrott Hill 6/0 Handicap Doubles Seniors Warwick 3 bt Bradfield Handicap Doubles Juniors Westbourne 2 winners

eacourt Silver Racquet

Home professional Adam Player overcame Michael Williams from Ballarat Australia, to triumph in the 2013 Seacourt Silver Racquet. Adam, who had to qualify to reach the main draw, defeated John Lumley, Tony

Hollins and Luke Danby on his way to the final. Both players were at the top of their game but it was Adam's new found fitness and strength which gave him the edge winning the match 6/4 4/6 6/3

pen Singles Championship – ATB dominates

The Open this year was a huge success and was enjoyed by both spectators and players alike. It was held back at the home of the game, The Queens Club, now all the work has finished and the galleries are perfect to get the most out of watching the great game. There was a fantastic entry this year and it meant that the qualifying rounds on the first weekend were hectic and full of some top Rackets. Only the top 12 went straight through the last 16, so there were plenty of impressive players trying to get through the qualifying groups. A special mention must go out to Patrick Maxwell who got through his group beating Ali Gourlay on his way to setting up a last 16 round match against no.1 seed Alex Titchener-Barrett. The semis finals were played on the Friday evening with a very good crowd for the ATB v Christian Portz match which resulted in ATB winning 4-2. The crowd nd seemed to be ever increasing for the 2 semi final where no.2 Will Hopton and no.3 seed James Coyne battled it out in what was an exciting match. It was one of those days for Coynie where everything he hit was perfect and Hoppy had nothing to combat the hard hitting and severe serving of his opponent. Coyne won 4-0. The final on Sunday was another mouth-watering prospect with two of the hardest hitters in the game going head to head. ATB played with some amazing control and was looking good for a 4-0 victory th especially at 9-0 up in the 4 . That wasn’t what Coynie had in mind and with some excellent serving and some brilliant killing of the ball he got back into the match winning 17-16. This got ATB thinking again and with some great serving and a very calm mentality ATB went on to win the championship. Well done to ATB for winning yet another title and showing that he has without doubt matured and changed his game and now looks a real threat to Stout.

ombined services Real Tennis Championships

Regimental Doubles: Col M O’Dwyer IRISH GDS & Lt Col A F R James GREN GDS bt Majs M Lytle & NF Tench AAC 6-2; 6-2.

There were a total of 39 entries this year comprising 6 RAF, 9 RN and the remainder Army which included a plethora of relative youth from both Wales and East Midlands OTCs. The appetite for Rackets appears to be growing as several newcomers tried their hand at this demanding sport in the novice Rackets league which was played in the margins of the main competitions and proved to be highly successful and can only be a positive way of increasing participation in this unique game. Whilst the AAC were represented in every final, this was the first year in recent memory that they came away deficient of silverware. Instead, it was the turn of the Guards and specifically the Grenadier Gds as Lt Col Andrew James dominated the Real Tennis taking a clean sweep in all three events. The Rackets witnessed the arrival of a new tour de force in the form of OCdt Adam Kula Przezwanski from EMOTC who claimed two of the Rackets titles and his aspirations to join the Army Air Corps may do much to alleviate the aforementioned silverware deficiency in the future!

Past & Present Doubles: Lt Col A F R James GREN GDS & Lt Col (Retd) D Reed-Felstead bt Majs NF Tench AAC & P Danby (Retd) 4-6; 6-3; 6-5.

The Tennis finals were somewhat one sided with the masterful Andrew James giving a very clinical and controlled display. He was ably supported by the much improved Michael O’Dwyer in the Regtl Doubles and the hard hitting David Reed Felstead in the Open Doubles. The latter match was particularly close going to a final set which witnessed long rallies and some quality Tennis as opponents Paul Danby and Nigel Tench tried desperately to hold on to the narrowest of leads. The Rackets Singles final saw Ollie Snell temporarily escape from his flying training to meet the talented Adam K-P in what was a close final which swung in Adam’s favour. The Regimental Doubles final saw both players joined by less experienced partners, to witness a similar result, but not without a significant battle for what must be the biggest and most impressive cup in Army Sport. Snell and K-P then teamed up to challenge the Nicholls brothers in the Open doubles where they were given a tough lesson in ball retrieval and can only take comfort from the fact that the brothers are no longer serving! Real Tennis Results: Singles: Lt Col A F R James GREN GDS bt Maj NF Tench AAC 6-0; 6-0.

Rackets Results: Singles: OCdt A Kula-Przezwanski EMOTC bt Capt O Snell AAC 3-1. Regimental Doubles: OCdt A Kula-Przezwanski & SSgt J Daley EMOTC bt Maj NF Tench & Capt O Snell AAC 3-1. Past & Present Doubles: M Nicholls & P Nicholls bt OCdt A Kula-Przezwanski & Capt O Snell 3-0.

athurst Cup

In February 2013 players from the USA, France, Australia and the UK descended on Holyport Real Tennis Club for the top amateur team event in Tennis. The Bathurst Cup goes back to the 1920’s and is held every 2 years, rotating around the countries with active Tennis courts. The format is the same as the lawn tennis Davis cup. The first matches played from Monday to Tuesday saw the USA take on Australia and GB take on the French. The GB and Aussie teams prevailed and went forward to meet each other in the final with the French and US teams playing off for third spot! Play started at 10am on the Wednesday morning with the French and US singles matches. This was the start of an amazing 4 matches that took more than 12 hours. Both Florian Reinaud and Peio Sarlangue took 2 set leads in their matches against Jeremy Wintersteen and Ben Cook, however the Americans were not having any of this straight sets malarkey and

fought back to 2 sets all. Both of the final sets were long and the French team prevailed in both, with each match lasting over 3 hours. At 4.20pm Jamie Douglas and Mike Happell took to the court. Mike was playing a controlled and sharp game and took the first 2 sets despite some magnificent retrieving from Jamie. Then we had a mammoth set, with both players taking the lead at different stages. At 5/4 down Jamie looked beaten, but despite a couple of match points against him he managed to take the third through sheer tenacity. An equally close fourth again saw Mike with the upper hand at stages, but unable to close of Jamie. Unknown to the crowd, towards the end of the fourth Mike was struggling with a tight calf which he already had strapped. Sadly he felt unable to continue, so the first point went to team GB. Though the score line of the Kieran Booth vs Conor Medlow match looks quite comfortable for KB, that was not the case. The 4 sets took over 3 hours and Conor came very close to taking the third, which would have upset the form book (as Conor did 2 years earlier taking KB to 5 in NY). The doubles was a similar story to the Wednesday singles, with the French and US players locked together for over 3 hours. In the end it came down to th the last 2 or 3 points available at 5 all in the 5 – and the US were so close to taking the match at 5/4 up in that same set! The win gave the French the tie to take third place. The doubles between the Australians and GB was an impressive spectacle. The Aussies took an early lead, with Bret Richardson proving his reputation in the galleries to be well deserved – he made his first unforced error in the second set! In the second Conor and Peter managed to get a better rhythm going and in particular managed to keep the service end for longer periods than in the first. At 1 sat all it looked like it could go either way, but KB and Bret rallied to take the third comfortably. The fourth was like all players had found another gear. Again, this could have gone either way with a very tense last 3 games. At 5 all it looked tight, but the Australians managed the game well and were able to close it out. So it was all down the last day of singles in the main event. KB took on Jamie Douglas and despite KB being the better player by 4 points on paper, the court and balls were neutral but allowed Jamie to keep the ball live even when that seemed impossible. The first set could have gone either way, with Jamie coming back from 2 games behind to just be pipped 6/5. He carried the momentum to the second which he won comfortable, but KB by this point was ramping up and switched the momentum his way to take the third. The fourth was tight to 4 all, with no player going more than a game up. The last 2 games went to KB and in winning them Australia retained the title and took the Cup back to Melbourne and the MCG trophy cabinet. The whole event was played in a great spirit, with the players from all teams being present for all the big matches and the Holyport faithful and others cheering

all along, despite the temperature dropping dramatically towards the end of the week. Thanks to all the Holyport committee and pros and a special thank you to Jill Newby and Angus for sorting all the billeting and food for the week.

The next Bathurst Cup will be in Australia in 2015

arsity Real Tennis Ladies Singles Oxford names first

Flora Olcott

Imogen Whittam 3/6 6/0 6/0

Audrey Davies bt

Karen Pearce 6/1 6/0

Emily Scaysbrook bt

Emily Brady 6/5 2/6 6/2

Maggie Henderson-Tew lost to Emma Samia-Aly 3/6 5/6 Ladies Doubles Audrey Davies & Emily Scaysbrook bt Emily Brady & Karen Pearce 6/2 6/5 Maggie Henderson-Tew & Flora Olcott bt Emma Samia-Aly & Imogen Whittam 6/5 6/1 Match Result Oxford won 5-1 Men’s Singles Oxford names first Euan Campbell lost to Freddie Kalfayan 3/6 1/6 Alex Portz bt Jules Camp 6/1 6/4 John Beale bt Alex Evans 6/3 6/2 Miles Jackson bt James Watson 6/5 6/2 Men’s Doubles John Beale & Euan Campbell lost to Freddie Kalfayan & Alex Evans 2/6 4/6 5/6 Miles Jackson & Alex Portz lost to James Watson & Jules Camp 3/6 5/6 6/2 6/4 4/6 Deciding Doubles Miles Jackson & John Beale bt James Watson & Freddie Kalfayan 6/3 6/5 Match Result Oxford won 4-3

S Open Rackets

James Stout won the US Open Rackets in Philadelphia, beating Alex Titchener-Barrett 3-1. James then went on to win the doubles title, partner with Mike Gooding. They defeated current British Open Champions James Coyne and Will Hopton 3-0

notched up 3 singles victories for Oxford, but not in consecutive years). In this feat of 3 wins in a row, Alex joins a very distinguished group of Oxford players, Mark Faber, Colin Cowdrey, Robert Riseley and JFC Simpson. No Cambridge first string has had 3 wins since HW Leatham just prior to the First World War! After the doubles matches were completed the players and supporters were treated to a Champagne Reception in the Museum, hosted by James Simpson of Pol Roger, who are the very much appreciated Sponsors of this historic contest between the Dark Blues and the Light Blues.

ol Roger Trophy

MCC bt Queen’s 3-2

arsity Rackets

1 Pairs

2nd Doubles: James Acheson-Gray & Jolyon Symonds lost to John Prenn & James Coyne 3-6 6-4 3-6. 1st Singles: Alexis Hombrecher lost to Conor Medlow 1-6 1-6

Oxford beat Cambridge 3 matches to 0 2nd Singles: David Harms bt Harry Eddis 6-2 6-2. Alex Portz (Winchester and Somerville) bt Ed Kay (St. Paul’s and Emmanuel) 18/17 11/15 15/8 15/8 (Oxford) Max Seely (Eton and Christ Church) bt Tom Elliott (Tonbridge and Sidney Sussex) 15/3 8/15 15/10 6/15 15/5 (Oxford) Portz/Seely bt Kay/Elliott 15/8 15/8 9/15 15/13 (Oxford)

Pairs

Oxford beat Cambridge 2 matches to 1 Ben Graves (Winchester and Worcester) bt Freddie Kalfayan (Clifton and Girton) 5/15 15/7 7/15 15/11 16/15 (Oxford) Arthur Wakeley (Malvern and Lincoln) bt Cameron Lemon (St Paul’s and Corpus Christi) 15/1 15/12 15/2 (Oxford) Kalfayan/Lemon bt Graves/Wakeley 15/9 15/11

3rd Singles: Peter Jarvis bt Chris Herbert 6-1 4-6 4-1 rtd. 1st Doubles: Neil Roxburgh & Mark Mathias bt Tom Seymour -Mead & Dom Wright 6-3 6-3.

ield Trophy

CURTC bt Jesmond 3-2 nd

2 Doubles: Jules Camp & Ed Kay bt Ed Lyle & Rory Musgrave 6/1 6/0 st

1 Singles: Alex Evans lost to Charlie Harries-Jones 5/6 6/0 5/6 nd

Singles: Ed Pearson bt Richard MacAlister 6/0 6/2

(Cambridge) rd

This was by far the best Varsity Match for some years. In recent times Cambridge have struggled to extend Oxford, but this year all the matches were well contested and the standard of many of the rallies was truly exciting. 0xford ended up winners of all the 4 combined singles matches, deservedly so, but were th taken to a deciding game in 2 of them. In the 5 game nd st of the 2 pairs 1 string match, Ben Graves had 5 match points he didn’t win, but saved 3 match points that Freddie Kalfayan had in the see-saw set to 3 from 13-all. In winning the top singles match, Alex Portz became the first player since Mark Faber, over 40 years ago, to st achieve 3 consecutive 1 String victories, (though since then Will Fortune and Richard Carter have also

3 Singles: Jimmy Campbell lost to Michael Raven st

1 Doubles: Duncan Colquhoun & Andrew Petrie bt John Duns & Alan Douglas 6/4 6/5

Winning Team - Cambridge

rodie Cup

Seacourt bt Hatfield 3-2 nd

2 Doubles: Simon Flynn & Nigel Ireson bt Will Harris & Chris Handley 6/4 6/1. st

1 Singles: Neale Turner bt Nick Brodie 5/6 6/3 6/1 nd

2 Singles: Simon Armstrong lost to Chris Aley 6/0 6/4. rd

3 Singles: Jerry Way bt Nick Pickard 5/6 6/2 6/4 st

1 Doubles: Jess Garside & Lewis Davies lost to Andrew Gaunt & Martin Richards 1/6 6/1 6/2

adies Open Championships

The Ladies British Open is now in its third year and it is safe to say that ladies Rackets is growing in strength year by year. Rallies are longer and more tactical play is being used.After two round robin boxes, Karen Hird met Alex Kurkjian in the semi-final, with Claire Vigrass matching up against Sally Grant in the other. Karen’s angles and movement on court proved too much for Alex, as she led 15/4 14/1. Unfortunately Karen had to pull out, giving Alex a life line and a place in the finals. Claire also proved too strong and the match was set for a re-run of the final last year, Kurkjian v. Vigrass. Kurkjian had a fantastic run of serves putting Vigrass on the back foot almost immediately. At 9/0 up, it looked like there was no stopping her, but Claire had other plans. She dug deep and began returning to a good length, using the width of the court more to move Alex side to side. She made an incredible come back to win the game 15/9 and never looked back. She sealed her third British Open title. 15/9 15/1 15/3.

mateur Singles With the Bathurst Cup having just finished, we

were graced with several of the players staying on for the Amateur Open. With that and Julian Snow coming over to defend his 2012 titles we had the strongest draw for many years. Most matches in the early rounds had no surprises, though sadly for Mike Happell his calf gave way in his match against Miles Jackson. Then Miles went on to have an impressive win against Roman Krznaric in a long 5 set battle to make his first major semi! The other notable match was a three hour 5 set tussle between John Prenn and Tom Seymour-Mead, with John just coming out on top. Unfortunately for Miles he met Julian in the semi and was shown no mercy. The other singles semi final was a great match, with the young Frenchman Matthieu Sarlangue taking on former winner Jamie Douglas. Matthieu took the first set with his laid back but very controlled play and ability to handle pace holding fast against Jamie’s attacking style. In the second Jamie found that respecting Matthieu’s ability and rallying points out was what was required to get the upper hand. This he did for three sets, and whilst at no point appearing to be in complete control, closed the match out by serving tight and staying in points until he had clear openings. The singles final therefor had two past champions facing up - one of them had won a few more than the other though! The first set was probably the best, with Julian playing his traditional game, but with the added feature of stopping Jamie from being able to use his pace from either side of the net or the court. It would be no exaggeration to say that over 80% of balls were hit to Jamie’s backhand at half pace to better than 2. That being said, as in his semi, Jamie was patient and was able to suck up the monotonous rallies and bide his time till he could finish points. Julian managed to take the third, but Jamie seemed to be in control for the majority of the match and won this third Amateur Open title.

mateur Doubles

The doubles semis followed form, but Matthieu and Alistair Lumsden gave Julian and Conor Medlow a run for their money, taking the third set 6/5. This was the first set the pair had lost since they started playing together at the 2012 Amateur Open.

The doubles final gave Julian a chance to get some honour back, and with he and Conor both having had many doubles successes between them, they started the match against Jamie and Peter Wright as favourites. The first set went with form, but then Jamie and Peter managed to get going. Though they lost the second and third sets, 6/4 and 6/5 were deserved scores and they did have opportunities to lead at times. The title went to Conor and Julian for a second year and Alistair Lumsden did the honours with the trophies and the Pol, and then thanked all those at QC for giving up their courts and supporting the matches, to Neptune for their continued amazing sponsorship and the pros for getting all the matches going on time and marking.

mateur Doubles Alex Titchener-Barrett & Tim Cockroft bt Mike Bailey & Tom Billings 4-1

naugural Ladies British Amateur Doubles Championship

rowning Cup

Darren Long retained his Browning Cup title, beating Craig Greenhalgh 6/5 6/5 in the final. Along the way Darren had two three set matches and was pushed all the way in a tight final, but managed to secure the victory in 2 straight sets.

The inaugural British Women’s Rackets Doubles Tournament was held at Malvern College. The College has spearheaded women’s Rackets, staging the first ever women’s challenge match in 2010 which helped to build momentum and led to the first national senior singles and schoolgirls championships the following year. Their own pair, lower sixth former Shinan Zhang, 16, and sports teacher Chey showed their rapid improvement with some fine performances in their first senior event. Despite going down in straight games, thanks to the favourites’ extra experience and weight of shot, the pair produced some sparkling Rackets and improved visibly throughout the match to the delight of the enthusiastic gallery. The final saw Kurkjian and Hird match up against Gaskell and Lenihan. Kurkjian and Hird showed their class with a thrilling display of power Rackets, cleverly cut serves and subtle boasts. Although Gaskell and Lenihan battled back to level at 8-all in the hard-fought second game, Hird’s fine volleying and Kurkjian’s explosive serves and forehands gave them the edge and they stormed through without dropping a game. Final:Kurkjian/ Hird bt Gaskell/Lenihan15-0 15-8 15-1

ublic Schools Championships

1 Pairs Harrow bt Cheltenham 15/10 15/12 15/11 17/15

choolgirls Rackets Championship

Under 16 Girls Singles (Beryl Danby Cup) Georgie Willis bt Eve Shenkman 21/15

Under 18 Girls Singles (Judy Angus Cup) Millie Pughe (WEL) bt Lily Owen (CHE) 15/7 15/12 nd

2 Pairs Eton bt Cheltenham 11/15 10/15 15/10 15/19 16/13 10/15 15/8

ritish Under 12/15/19 Doubles Championships

The British Under 12/15/19 Doubles Championships were once again held at the Holyport Club. As usual this venue provided a great atmosphere for all the youngsters from the many different clubs that took part, although the freezing weather gave the event quite a different feel.

Colts Final Eton bt Wellington 15/11 15/11 15/8 17/14

The under 12 section was as strong as it’s ever been with 6 good pairs playing some exceptional Tennis for their age. The closely fought semi-finals produced an all Seacourt final with Huw Thomas & George Charlton defeating their younger opponents Max Jones & William Flynn 6/4

Junior Colts Final Eton bt Wellington 16/13 15/2 14/17 15/8

The round robin section of the under 15’s produced the following finalists, Hugo Hodgson & Oscar Wright (Petworth) v Finlay Ramjane (Prested) & Columbus O’Donnell (Petworth). The match was far closer than the score suggests with many games going to deuce,

However in the end Hugo & Oscar triumphed 6/1 6/2 to take the trophies.

adies World Championships th

Paris 15 – 21 April. Big draw expected for the 2013 World Championships. Claire Vigrass will be out to defend her Singles title and the Doubles (along with her sister Sarah). Plenty of social events throughout the week promising for a fantastic tournament all round.

The under 19 section was a quite a one sided affair with top seeds Levi Gale (Hyde) & Lewis Williams (Prested) on a much lower handicap than any other pairs. However a very close group section produced the other finalists Felix White (Radley) & Rory Giddins (Queens). The final itself proved to be far from one sided with the younger unseeded pair giving the top seeds quite a few scares before Levi & Lewis came out as the winners 6/3 6/4.

orld Championship Rackets

Defending Champions Alex Titchener-Barrett & Tim Cockroft take on ‘The Challengers’ of Will Hopton and James Coyne in 2 best of 7 legs. The first leg will be held in Chicago (Saturday 20th) and the second leg th will be held at The Queen’s Club (Saturday 27 ). For information on tickets please contact Rosie Brown: office@tennisandrackets.com

More dates for your diary… th

Thanks as usual go to the Holyport Club for hosting the event and to Neptune for their generous sponsorship. Also a special thanks to Holyport professional Angus Williams for all his hard work.

Major events coming up…

pen Doubles

The Open doubles will be taking place at The Queen’s rd th Club 3 -14 April. With two high profile doubles pairs preoccupied training up for the World Doubles it leaves the tournament wide open. The traveling pair of Jamie Stout and Mike Gooding will take some beating, but there are pairs lining up to give them a run for their money.

ilne Hue Williams Cup

(Public Schools Old Boys Under 24 Doubles Championship) th

April 9th-14 Ladies Singles and Doubles Open Championships and handicap doubles @ Seacourt th st April 19 -21 – Category A Open Championship @ Oxford st April 21 – Over 70 Amateur Singles and Doubles Championship @ Holyport th th April 27 -28 Prested Cup for UK Under 20 Amateurs th th April 27 -28 Over 50 Amateur Doubles Championship

In other news….

uinness World Record Attempt

Will Stephens and Richard Ramjane, two of Prested Hall’s keen Real Tennis members will face a raft of opponents in an attempt to raise in excess of £5,000 for Great Ormond Street Hospital (GOSH) and, at the same time, create a new Guinness World Record. th

From 6.00pm on Friday 10 May 2013, Will and Richard aim to play as many doubles opponents as they can manage for at least 24 hours and, in so doing, hope to create a new Guinness World Record: Real Tennis, Doubles, Most Consecutive Opponents. Will set a similar Guinness World Record playing 26 singles matches non-stop in 2010. The attempt will culminate in matches against Richard’s twin sons Fin and Zak, and then Rob Fahey, the current men’s World Champion and his partner Claire Vigrass, the current ladies World Champion.

To be held April 5 -7 (alongside the Open Doubles) at the Queen’s Club.

The event will be taking place at Prested Hall in Feering, Colchester, Essex. The charitable fundraising is for GOSH Children’s Charity because around 9 years ago Richard’s son

Finlay was taken ill with severe complications after a bout of chicken pox. He was given only a 50:50 chance of surviving. Through early detection from his local GP, and expert care at the hospital Finlay managed to pull through the ordeal and is now a healthy little boy enjoying life as he should, and of course playing Real Tennis! Anyone who would like to support Will and Richardâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s attempt and their support of GOSH Childrenâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s Charity can do so by visiting their Just Giving page at https://www.justgiving.com/account/teams/RTWorldRe cord. All-comers also welcome to the post event fundraising party at Prested Hall Real Tennis Club on th the evening of Saturday 11 May. For more information please contact: Will Stephens on 07545 922992 or willjstephens@hotmail.co.uk

ocial Media

We are now on Twitter and Facebook. For all news, events and photos please join/like/follow! Twitter will especially be used for game by game updates in the Major events.

embership Cards

T&RA Membership cards will be sent out in April to your home/primary clubs Please be aware of this and pick them up when you can!

Photographs: Tim Edwards & Tory Wall