To the best of my knowledge, no matches were played on Monday. I have three results and match reports from the matches for Tuesday, as follows.
On the hard courts, the veteran mixed pair of Jane Boyle & Brian Coffey took on the third seeds Margaux Valarche & Logan Mair. Brian is pleased just to be on court nowadays, sporting a pair of bionic knees obtained in operations last year. But he is just “breaking them in” so to speak, as far as tennis is concerned. Margaux was struggling somewhat with her serve, and ended up having to serve underarm. But the rest of her game was certainly on a high last time I saw her play. Margaux and Logan justified their seeding by winning 6-2 6-0.
Stephen Cooke is one half of the reigning men’s doubles from 2019, the other half being Tom Tapper. Tom is not available this year, and Stephen attempted to co-opt Tim Simpson to assist in his title defence. However, this was not to be, which is why Tim Simpson & Logan Mair are second seeds this year in the men’s doubles and were hoping for an easy win over Marco Baldini & Howard Kingston. Marco is new to the club this year. However Logan had already played Howard in the singles, and was well aware that Howard’s first serve can be extremely difficult to return on grass – if it goes in.
Apparently, this turned out to be a very entertaining match, with some terrific rallies. And, after a few aces by Howard, it turned out to be a much harder slog for the seeds than anticipated. Tim ended up having to throw himself around the grass court Becker-style with some wonderful diving volleys to secure vital points. Logan hit “wild” (to quote Sultan) powerful backhands towards the net player on others. However, consistency and experience came through in the end, with Logan and Tim securing a 6-4 6-3 victory.
Stephen Cooke is now paired up with Steve Yoo.
Marco Baldini is a new member this year and played Geoff Isaacs, the fifth seed in the men’s singles. From the score it seemed like quite a good match, which Geoff won 6-4 6-3.
In the men’s singles, Gideon Stone played Tim Simpson. Tim won 6-3 6-3.
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