There were a number of matches played over the weekend, and the events with the biggest draws are progressing nicely.
Unfortunately the weather Monday evening looks very dodgy, and Tuesday evening not much better. There is also a Ladies’ First Team match scheduled on the grass for Wednesday evening.
In a Sunday Men’s Singles, Marc Reid took on Greg Lim, the fifth seed. Marc doesn’t play that much, although he was practising quite a bit before the tournament with his brother Philip. Greg plays a lot, and was playing on Friday for the West Heath first team in a match at the Cumberland, against their fifth team.
Greg was too strong for Marc in the first set, and took it 6-0. At 3-0 up in the second set, as it didn’t seem it would alter the outcome, Greg kindly agreed to take a photo of four of us from a mixed doubles. Apparently the brief interruption gave Marc a chance to reset and hold serve, which resulted in a final score of 6-0 6-1.
In an early Sunday morning match starting at 8:30 am, Fred Davidson played Orhun Guley. Apparently the first set was very tight, with both players trying to play consistently and not give anything away. But at 5 all, Orhun broke Fred’s serve with better consistency and Orhun took the set 7-5. Fred tried to hit out more in the second set, but it resulted in more errors under pressure, and Orhun took the match 7-5 6-1.
The picture does include Orhun on the left (so you know what he looks like), but it is not Fred on the right. On the right is César Torres, an occasional visitor from Argentina who came to just play social tennis, following his last successful visit 12 years ago!
Every year, at this time of year we get many requests from around the world to play on our grass courts. We don’t know just how lucky we are!! Over this summer there have been requests from UAE, Saudi Arabia, Argentina, USA, France and Italy to name but a few.
Only one Men’s Singles first round match has yet to be scheduled.
Early Saturday afternoon, in the Men’s Doubles, Gabriele Abatti & David Hirst played Dan Dalton & Kerry Karageorgis. Gabriele and David play frequently for the men’s second team, and Dan and Kerry are a decent doubles pair, so it was expected to be an interesting battle. In the first set Gabriele & David broke Dan & Kerry twice, but were themselves broken once, taking the set 6-3. In the second set there was some good doubles played, but both sides were a little nervous of making errors. Matters reached 5 all before Gabriele & David broke to take the match 6-3 7-5.
Late Sunday afternoon, Mark Webb & Paul Rubie took on Gideon Stone & Geoff Isaacs. Mark used to be second team captain, so has a decent doubles game, and Paul hits some good shots, but has had a dodgy back and hasn’t been able to play much recently. Meanwhile Gideon and Geoff have played together in the tournament since 2017, and are wily old birds with decent doubles games, fair consistency, and, in the case of Geoff, good pace too.
Viewed from afar, the match seemed to be a decent ding dong battle, but it turned out that Gideon & Geoff won the first set 6-1. In the second set, Mark and Paul took a couple of games, but the result was a 6-1 6-2 victory to Gideon and Geoff.
Only one first round (round of 16) match remains to be played in the Men’s Doubles, before the quarter finals start.
On Saturday, Eugene Belin & Elena Valarche took on the Mixed Doubles fifth seeds (and former Champions) Greg Lim & Marjan Denis. Elena is famous for her net play, and Eugene has a decent serve and some consistent ground strokes, as does Marjan. But Greg plays for the men’s first team and has a much stronger game, with an excellent eye and rarely makes mistakes. Further, he is well over 6 foot tall and highly mobile with good anticipation, so not much gets past him at the net.
The challengers were able to hold serve a couple of times in each set, but did not pose sufficient threat to upset the expected result, which was that Greg & Marjan won 6-2 6-2.
The well established tournament pairing of Richard Nightingale & Sally Tornow were drawn against the eighth seeds Richard Keep & Natalie Milner. Richard and Sally have entered the mixed together since 2010, so this may be their 15th appearance together. Richard has a decent serve and groundstroke game, while Sally is normally effective at the net. Natalie is a recent addition to the ladies’ first team, having previously been part of Jen’s Oxford University tennis team. Richard has played for the men’s first team for many years, and has appeared in the West Heath Tournament singles final more than once, but, until now, has never won it.
Despite the mismatch in credentials, Richard and Sally picked up one game in each set, but were unable to prevent the seeds advancing 6-1 6-1.
Peter Davies & Sabine Casparie played the second seeds Stephen Cooke & Alex Reyner. Peter (me) is enjoying playing on the grass this season and can hit some decent serves and strokes, but is making too many unforced errors. Sabine has sometimes played for the ladies’ second team, and served consistently. Meanwhile Stephen does a good simulation of being 7 foot tall at the net, though he isn’t quite that, really. Stephen never makes it through to the finals of all 3 events in the club tournament, though he never loses a match, because he invariably gets injured. So this year he decided not to enter the singles, to preserve himself for the doubles. Meanwhile Alex has a cracking serve and plays like she would give Stephen a good game of singles.
Sabine and Peter couldn’t force enough errors out of Alex and Stephen to get enough points for a game. Stephen was deadly anywhere close to the net, often playing unreachable angled volleys. The inevitable result was a 6-0 6-0 victory to the seeds.
