Match Report

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This annual LRTA Tournament moved to a new venue for this year’s competition to enjoy the use of Cambridge University’s two Real Tennis Courts. There were 36 entrants, 18 in each group. Four new LRTA members joined us for the Tournament, and indeed, three of them went through to the eventual finals in Division 2.

Preliminary Singles rounds started on Thursday, and progressed through Friday and into Saturday morning; although play was transferred from the Green to the Blue Court on Friday evening, as a major fuse blew and left the Green Court in darkness. Kees Ludekens was very quick to get this rectified, and on Saturday morning play began on both courts as planned. By early afternoon, the Doubles knockout matches were underway on both courts. Many players enjoyed an excellent dinner at Bella Italia on Saturday evening, and Lucy Davies asked the assembled group to raise their glasses in a toast to Sheilagh Owens, whose many years of participation in this event were interrupted this year, by a trip to South Africa, with some other Real Tennis players. We hope you all enjoyed yourselves!

As usual at this event, there was a great deal of very entertaining tennis from the very start and the excitement continued right through to the finals which were hard fought and very close. For the first time ever, there was a representative from the same family in every final – Doris Siedentopf and her two daughters, Karen and Sarah Hird.

The Division 1 Singles Final was first and involved Karen Hird, the 16 year old Junior Badminton Champion with a real tennis handicap in the early thirties, playing Gill Houston a member of the Cambridge Club, playing off 48. Right from the start the match was played in blistering style by Karen with some stunning serving and great agility and speed around the court. It wasn’t until the third game that Gill settled properly into the match and began to fight hard providing the spectators with some excellent tennis. The score had reached seven – five to Gill, but Karen showed the determination that makes her a champion badminton player and fought back with some superb serving to level the score at seven all. Inevitably they reached eight all and the battle for the final game was eventually won by Gill who remained calm and focused. A thrilling start to the finals.

The Division II Singles Final was equally close even though the final score did not fully reflect this. The players were Helen-Frances Pilkington, an under-graduate at Cambridge, and Doris Siedentopf, an experienced player of the game. Helen played a very controlled and focused game, with frequent shots to the tambour or tight into the grille corner. Doris fought hard throughout and there were ten forty-all games out of 15 played. Eventually Helen’s calmness and quiet determination brought her victory with nine games to six.

Next came the Division I Doubles Final. This time, the two juniors, Karen Hird and Sarah Vigrass took on the experienced doubles partnership of Pam Tomalin and Chantelle Harding. As Lucy Davies later pointed out in her Prize Presentation speech, the combined ages of the two juniors fell well short of the age of either of the other two players! The youngsters were giving receive half 30 owe fifteen – a tough call, but they rose to the challenge. Despite some stunning play from Pam and Chantelle, the excellent serving by both Karen and Sarah and their relentless returning of the ball finally proved too much for Pam and Chantelle and the youngsters won by nine games to three.

The Division II Final had Helen-Frances Pilkington (playing in both singles and doubles finals on her first appearance at the tournament) and Sarah Hird against Fiona Hewson and Charlotte Pawlyn. For once there were no experienced partnerships playing in the final as all the players had met only the day before – and they were all under the age of 30! The match got off to a flying start with Fiona and Charlotte winning the first game. Sarah, who has a wrist injury, served with one hand, but produced an often very difficult serve for her opponent to return. The game was highly competitive and there were some excellent rests. Neither pair wanted to give any ground, but Fiona and Charlotte kept ahead and eventually won through with a final unreturnable volley from Charlotte into the grille corner. The final score was nine games to six.

Liz Fisher
04/12/05

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