Ladies Doubles Tournament

26 & 27th September 2009

This was the second “Highest with Lowest” tournament held at Leamington. We were again warmly received by the professionals Kevin Sheldon and Marc Seigneur, and the club’s manager and chef Ross Clarke.

Fourteen players entered this year and couples were paired on a highest with lowest handicap basis. We welcomed for the first time Sallie Blanks, a new LRTA member from Bristol & Bath, and were delighted to see Chantelle Harding on court again, in increasingly good form as the weekend progressed. Sadly, Sheila Macintosh wasn’t able to play this year having sustained an injury the week before.

There was plenty of tennis for everybody: in the preliminary round each pair played all the other pairs in first-to-six game sets. Handicaps ranged from the mid twenties (Alex Garside) to the mid sixties, and ages spanned an even greater range, with Jessica Garside (14) representing the lower end of that one!

After an excellent dinner at the Club on Saturday evening, the remaining preliminaries were played on Sunday morning. Hazel Dunn and Angela Reichardt were unstoppable, winning every one of their matches, and so were the winners of the only match that Sarah McGivern and Jess Garside lost. The other two pairs in the semi-finals were third and fourth in the group: Sallie Blanks & Trish Morris and Chantelle Harding & Katy Weston. Leamington’s club president, Charles Wade, kindly agreed to present the prizes and joined us for lunch before the finals afternoon on Sunday.

The first semi-final was a terrific match between Angela & Hazel and Chantelle & Katy whom they had beaten 6-1 on the previous day. Angela & Hazel took the first game comfortably and seemed to be settling again into their winning partnership, but Chantelle & Katy then took the second game and had suddenly found their form. Katy, guarding the galleries, made the two coolest winning strokes of the weekend. They levelled the set at 3 all and thereafter took control; Chantelle produced one of her blasting forehands to clinch the match.

The second semi-final was a 6-0 victory for Sarah & Jessica. Trish and Sallie could do nothing when faced with Sarah’s perfect length returns down the wall and Jess’s ability to reach and deal with every shot they could produce; Jess’s slight frame belying the power and accuracy of her strokes.

In the Final; Sarah & Jess looked as if they had been playing together as a pair for years, and although Chantelle & Katy had steadily improved throughout the tournament, they were beaten 6-3. Congratulations to both pairs on an excellent match.

Sarah was embarrassed to find herself a winner of her own tournament and recipient of one of the lovely ceramic Turkish bowls that she had provided as prizes. Our thanks go to her and Kevin Sheldon for organising such a smoothly run and thoroughly enjoyable weekend, to Kevin and Marc for marking all our matches, to Charles Wade for presenting the prizes, and to Ross for producing delicious meals at regular intervals.

Trish Morris