Doubles Tournament 2009 Report

35 teams competed in a tournament of Mens, Mixed and Ladies’ events at Redland last week-end. There were Main and Plate competitions for the Men and Mixed categories whilst the disappointing lack of numbers meant the  Ladies tournament was reduced to a “round robin”. This was won by Emma Chorley and Sarah Brown who dropped only one game in their 3 match campaign

The Men’s Main competition witnessed some lively competitive matches with many lasting over an hour. It must be a mark of something (inherent ability?) that one team in the Final hadn’t played for 18 months  with one player playing with body parts he wasn’t born with!!. Chris Clare and Martyn Rich came up against defending champions Dan West and Ian Fenner-Evans. This final (one of the few without a Clark in it) took well over an hour of hard graft with Ian and Dan retaining their title (just !!) 3-2. Ian Fudge volunteered to mark the match and undoubtedly it made a difference to the entertainment value for the spectators and was a benefit to the competitors. As a result, all next year’s finals will be marked. The Plate event had some equally tough matches with Ben Swift and Ian Stuart (who nearly didn’t make the draw due to an administrative cock up by me) up against Matt Clark and Gary Loughran (claiming to be the oldest in the tournament…..no sympathy given !!) in the final. The match was no walk over with the hard won spoils eventually going to Ben and Ian, 3-2.

The Mixed Main competition result was, some might say, a foregone conclusion with Emma Chorley and Keith Sanzo, number one seeds defending their title. They had an easy-ish route to the final where they met the number two seeds Rob Watkins and Natalie Lawrence. It was an entertaining match with Emma and Keith successfully defending their title 3-0.
The Plate final had the recurring Clark theme, Matt and Alice, playing Nigel Tovey and Caroline Moore in a match that was delayed because of the multi participation of some players in other finals. No doubt this took something off the match, as most spectators had left the venue before the match started. Ways to avoid this happening in future must be found. In the end The Clarks won 3-1

Finally, I would like to thank Redland for making my life a little easier and offer big thanks to  everyone who participated and hope  you enjoyed the tournament. However, a way needs to be found to encourage more Ladies to enter the tournament. I have a year to come up with a solution……any thoughts?

David Jenkins