The lists are now up in the clubhouse (on the wall near the bar entrance) for the gourmet dinners from Monday, 9 August to Thursday, 12 August. Everyone is welcome for as many nights as they wish, by signing up on the list in the clubhouse or replying to the email. Dinners take place outside, include food and drink for £12 – £15 and are absolutely brilliant! Watch the later round matches first, including the final of the mixed doubles on Thursday evening. There’s plenty of opportunity to chat and meet people.
Main courses and chefs are as follows:
- Monday- Fish Pie (Rachael & Lara)
- Tuesday – Mediterranean Chicken (Brian)
- Wednesday – Sri Lankan (Lesley)
- Thursday – Lamb tagine (Moira & Marjan)
Sunday’s matches
Although a little rain was forecast, it held off until mid afternoon, after which all the courts were out of action for an hour or two. There were five matches played. The first two were played before the mini rain break.
Arjun Thawani took on Brian Coffey in the men’s singles. Arjun won a tight first set 7-5, but Brian took an even tighter second set 7-6. The rules say singles matches should be best of three sets. But with rain looming, Arjun and Brian decided a little flexibility was called for, so played a champions tie break instead, which Brian won [10-7] to take the match 5-7 7-6 [10-7]. psst – don’t tell the match referees!
Despite the surnames, Dominic Green & Karina Wilsher are married to each other. They played Richard Nightingale & Sally Tornow, who have partnered in the mixed since 2010. Everyone enjoyed the game. Sally reported that Karina could hit the ball very hard, and Dominic did some good drop shots. Dominic and Karina won the match 6-3 6-2.
After the courts had mostly dried out, there was some social tennis played, followed by remaining three matches.
On the hard courts, Magnus Stuxberg took on the eighth seed, Joseph Rigal. It seemed to be quite a close match, though Joseph won 6-2 6-3. I failed to get a photo of the pair, so one of Joseph taken later will have to do! Joseph now has to play Brian Coffey, and then the winner takes on last year’s champion, Marcio Sugui.
Later, on grass court 1, Brian Coffey was in action again, this time partnered with Carmen Martinez in the mixed against Scott Palmer & Susan Grossman. Susan has improved quite a bit recently, especially on the volley and net position. Meanwhile Scott is always prepared to run and run and run, and very often gets shots back that you think he should have no right to return.
The first set was very tight up to 5 all, but Brian and Carmen broke and held to win it 7-5. However, this seems to have been somewhat dispiriting for Scott and Susan, and the second set was a more one-sided affair. Brian and Carmen won 7-5 6-0, and have thus earned a match against Marjan Denis and Greg Lim, the second seeds.
On the hard court, Paul Rubie & Julia Abbot took on Bruce Rigal & Barbara Thomas in the mixed. After the match was over, Julia said she does take a couple of sets to warm up, and Paul said he’d already played a few sets earlier. Bruce and Barbara took the first set 6-0. The second set was a little more competitive, and Julia and Paul won 3 games (perhaps just one net break), for a 6-0 6-3 victory to Bruce and Barbara. After the event, Julia produced a bottle of rose for the participants to share.
