West Heath LTC

Three matches were played today – a mixed and two men’s doubles.

In the early mixed, Terry Heller & Peter Davies took on their second round opponents of Jen Ehr & Sultan Gangji, the second seeds. Terry can be a demon at the net, and Peter is revelling in his new hip (replacement November last year), restoring his previous mobility, and the opportunity to play more frequently and thus more consistently. Meanwhile, with an excellent eye and good anticipation, Sultan can generally make shots whenever he can reach the ball, though can’t jump as high as some when lobbed! Jen has an excellent all round game with the particular ability to hit awkward (for the opponents) topspin forehands to within a couple of feet of the baseline.

Although the challengers got a couple of deuces in the first set, they didn’t translate into games, Jen and Sultan winning it 6-0.

In the second set, Terry and Peter played more consistently and kicked off by breaking Jen to take a 2-0 lead. Again they had deuces in other games, but lost the critical points on which they could maybe have hit winners which would have given them more games. Jen and Sultan took the match 6-0 6-2. A great time was had by all though, which was the main thing, given the likely outcome.

Dr Heller had to rush back home for important medical consultations, so here is a picture of the winning team celebrating their victory. Please don’t look too closely at the baseline.

In the first of the men’s doubles evening matches, Dan Dalton & Rob Curtis played David Hirst & Steve Yoo with no one seeded.

In the first set, David and Steve came out hitting hot, in Steve’s case perhaps with something to prove after his loss in the singles to Leo Colle. Both have demonstrated elsewhere that they are are well capable of doing this, though sometimes the effect can be blunted by a high rate of errors. Dan and Rob took longer to get going, winning a game only after losing five in a row, so David and Steve took the set 6-1.

In the second set Dan and Rob dug in to the extent they took the lead (if I am not getting confused), while David and Steve could not sustain their pace, but managed to get back to 5 all. Viewed from the men’s doubles match next door, it appeared that everyone was cracking down good serves and the standard of play was excellent. But at 5 all, David and Steve just managed the break to give themselves the set and match 6-1 7-5.

In the second of the men’s doubles, Charles Rubinstein & Richard Nightingale played Andrei Cristescu and Peter Davies. Charles is famous for his wily approach to angled shots and placement to make life as difficult as possible for opponents, while Richard is very consistent with a decent serve. Andrei has some good, reliable, heavy groundstrokes and a decent serve, while Peter had his eye in due to the earlier mixed doubles, and both were highly mobile.

In the first set, Charles was exploiting the angles and the pair forced a number of errors from the opponents during the early games. While Peter and Andrei had the upper hand, it took them some time to settle fully to the task in hand. Notably, all their shots aimed close to the baseline were flying just out, though there weren’t enough to affect the outcome of the set, which Andrei and Peter won 6-2.

In the second set, Andrei and Peter played a tighter game, eliminating the errors on shots close to the baseline and were able to exert more pressure. Matters reach 4-0, when gentle rain started. By 5-0 the rain started in earnest, and the match would have been abandoned for a while, but the players toughed it out in the light of the score. Andrei and Peter won the second set 6-0 for a 6-2 6-0 victory, the scale of which surprised some of the spectators.

Peter had an exactly neutral day, losing 6-0 6-2 in the mixed and winning 6-2 6-0 in the men’s doubles! However, trust me, it feels a lot better afterwards to win the last match than the first!

Please make sure you have plenty of fluids with you if playing on Tuesday. Temperatures are likely to reach all time UK records.

Perhaps surprisingly, given the temperatures predicted for the following day, there was only one match played, a men’s single match between Matias Piazza, a new member this year, and Logan Mair, the fifth seed. Matias is tall, with a decent first serve, and has an open stance forehand, which you rarely see at club level. But he has not been playing at a high enough standard. Logan has a somewhat unorthodox style of play, which is very effective. He can accurately whack ground strokes or serves, but also has other serves available, such as top slice.

Though he seemed to get to them, Matias struggled to return some of Logan’s harder shots, often putting the ball well wide. He had more success in just returning the ball deep, and winning rallies with drop shots, but it wasn’t enough. Although some of the games were closer than the game score might indicate, he won only one of his own service games, and that was it, for a 6-1 6-0 victory to Logan.

Next up for Logan is Mr Consistent – Peter Farrell, who got everything in the court which he could get his racket to, when he played me.

Please make sure you have plenty of fluids with you if playing Monday or Tuesday. Temperatures are likely to reach all time UK records on these days.

There was a good crop of five matches today, including some very entertaining matches watched by a large crowd in the evening.

The early afternoon match was a ladies’ doubles between Gavriella Epstein-Lightman & Terry Heller, and Jen Ehr & Katie Baston, the first team players and top seeds. Gavriella is 14 and hadn’t played doubles matches, and hadn’t played on grass before, which takes some getting used to, while Terry felt she was not playing at 100%. Meanwhile, Katie and Jen are an experienced doubles pair, both with decent serves, and both Gavriella and Terry had difficulty in intercepting and returning them. Further, while Terry’s strength is at the net, the passes and weight of shot from Jen and Katies did not give her much chance to hit volleys from there. In the first set, Gavriella and Terry claimed 2 games, but gained no more in the second set, with Jen and Katie winning 6-2 6-0.

As always, with a younger player the rate of improvement is always spectacular, and Gavriella’s level of comfort on grass improved considerably, both during the match and during a subsequent friendly hit. So watch this space next year!

In the evening, there were a couple of men’s singles matches, and a mixed and men’s doubles.

If it does not play immediately, click on the video above!!

Of course, during the tournament, the regular Middlesex team league matches have still been going on. On Friday, here are the third pair, Moira Duncan and Jane Boyle helping out the West Heath ladies first team, who are more typically “under 30s” nowadays, captained by Jen Ehr. We draw more attention to the matching attire in the picture, rather than the fact Moira and Jane won games, but not sets, against South Hampstead. Overall, the West Heath team won 3 sets out of 12 for 6 points out of 24.

On Friday evening the Cumberland were confident of whitewashing the West Heath men’s first team. But our heroes, in the photo below, played superbly to hold them to a 12-all points draw.

The West Heath 2022 tournament started on Thursday 14 July.

The first match of the tournament was a singles between Gavin Stanton and Ed Fitzgerald. Ed plays in the men’s second team and is probably the tallest player in the club, and uses this to his advantage on serve, with some hard hitting groundstrokes. Ed won 6-0 6-2.

That evening there was also a mixed doubles on grass court 1 between Matt Wasser & partner vs Terry Heller & Peter Davies. Matt’s partner has a strong serve and can hit some heavy groundstrokes, but is not always that consistent, while Matt also has a decent serves and groundstrokes, but was nursing his elbow a little. Terry is very consistent on the groundstrokes and very effective at the net where she seems to be able to lunge at a ball nearly out of reach, but hit it over the net. Peter’s serve was going well. In the first set, Terry and Peter had things mainly their own way to win it 6-1 with some decent tennis.

But in the second set Terry and Peter were more nervous, and, at the hard court end, everyone found it difficult with the low sun down the court. Matt and partner played more consistently and served a little stronger, while Terry and Peter made more errors. At 5 all, it was turning into a bit of a struggle, but Terry and Peter managed to win one or two critical points in the next couple of games to take the set 7-5 and the match 6-1 7-5.

On Friday 15 July there were three matches played in the men’s singles.

Jean-Philippe (known as J P) Doumeng played and beat Dan Dalton 6-1 6-0.

On court 2 in the evening, Eugene Belin played Joseph Rigal, who is now men’s second team captain, and now has a job as a tennis reporter for Tennishead magazine. Both players played very consistently, but Joseph had the higher weight of shot, and, with more aggression, could put pressure on Eugene. In the first set, Eugene got to 40 love up on his service, but couldn’t convert it to a game. He tried serve and volley on some occasions, but Joseph could generally pass Eugene or hit it through him with pace which gave him no chance to get the ball back. Joseph won the first set 6-0. In the second set Eugene managed to convert a lead in points in a couple of games into service games, but didn’t threaten Joseph’s serve, so Joseph took the set 6-2 and the match 6-0 6-2.

After Joseph and Eugene had finished, Peter Davies (i.e. me) played Peter Farrell. Neither has played much singles recently. Peter D had a hip replacement in November and was relieved to be able to finally get back to playing a few sets of singles again. He generally served well and could force weak returns from Peter F and run him around the court. However, Peter F really is mister consistency. If he can get to a ball he will generally hit it back into court, including the ability to hit it close to the side lines on an angled shot. He has a strong backhand and can hit strong first serves within a couple of inches of the service line, though his second serve is weaker. Not only that, but his stamina is superb, as he does a lot of cycling, and he can chase balls all around the court. The gist of it is that Peter D had to hit winners to win points, or at least balls to which Peter F couldn’t get his racket to completely, and made a number of errors in the process.

The match was very tight, decided only by a few critical points. In both sets, the score reached 4 all and Peter F then held his service game, but Peter D couldn’t keep up the consistency under pressure of serving at 4-5 and got broken for a 6-4 6-4 victory to Peter Farrell. Although I lost, was a most enjoyable match with some good tactics going on. Nice to be back to singles.

1. The 2022 Tournament officially begins on THURSDAY 14 July and the FINALS will be played on SATURDAY 30th JULY. If rain prevents play, the FINALS will be played on SUNDAY 31st JULY. The Draw will be up by Wednesday 13th July to allow competitors to arrange matches during the week. First round matches must be played before or on SUNDAY17 July.
2. A chart of available court times can be booked on line and competitors are asked to book the courts they intend to play on.
3. The players whose name appears in the top half of the bracket are initially responsible for challenging their opponents.
4. The tournament is to be played on all the courts, apart from the semi-finals and the Finals, which will be played on grass, unless the weather does not permit. In the event of disagreement between the opponents on the surface to be chosen, this will be decided by the spin of the racket.
5. New Balls will be provided for the FINALS.
6. All rounds are to be played within the scheduled time indicated at the top of each draw sheet in order to allow smooth progress. Extensions will only be permitted in exceptional circumstances and with permission from the joint Referees.
7. All matches will be the best of 3 Tie-Break Sets except the DOUBLES EVENTS which will have the 3rd set as a MATCH TIE-BREAK (i.e. Champions T/B with a Team reaching 10 points with a margin of 2). The rules of the Tiebreak are displayed.
8. All matches must be continuous and appeal for bad light will be considered after 9.00pm.
9. Please give your Entry Fees £3/£5 to Moira or Marjan.
10. Competitors are expected to volunteer to be lines persons on Finals day.
11. Mixed Doubles Final will be scheduled for Thursday 28th JULY.
12. The schedule for 2nd week is fixed with Gourmet Dinners.
13. The Joint Referees are Marjan and Sultan whose decisions will remain final.

Although the finals day weather started out overcast, by the time the tennis was well under way, it turned sunny.

Men’s Singles Final

Ladies’ Doubles Final

Thursday tennis

The weather was decent. As well as one of the two ladies’ doubles semi-final deferred from Monday, two men’s singles semi-finals were played on grass, following by the mixed doubles final.

Mixed Doubles Final start and resumption

The mixed doubles final took place between the top seeds, Sultan Gangji & Jen Ehr, and the second seeds, Greg Lim & Marjan Denis, under the eagle eye of umpire Stephen Cooke.  Both sides were up for it.  Jen was covering a lot of court, including the space behind Sultan at the net.  Greg was putting away anything high that he could reach, as was Sultan at the net.  The set was very tight up to 5 all, but then Greg was broken and Sultan held, to give the top seeds the first set 7-5.  

The second set started, with Greg holding serve.  But it then became obvious that the later timing of the tournament this year meant it was unlikely to be finished, so all parties decided to suspend play due to bad light.

The conclusion of the final took place on the evening of Tuesday 31 August in front of a small band of spectators.  Matters proceeded with serve until 3 all, at which point Marjan held for 3-4 on Jen’s serve.  Jen was struggling to hit first serves to Greg, who won all the points.  But the ad court is her preferred side for serving, and she missed very few first serves against Marjan, who struggled to return any of them.  But after a large number of deuces, Marjan eventually won a point on her service return, and Greg wrapped up the set 6-3.

In the ensuring Champions Tie Break the momentum was decidedly with Greg and Marjan, who took it [10-4] to become mixed champions for the second time.

Friday ladies’ doubles semi-final match

ORDER OF PLAY.

DRAW.

Gourmet Dinners

Tonight, Lesley South prepared a tasty, spicy, Sri Lankan dinner which went down very well. Tonight (Thursday), Moira has prepared lamb tagine.

Gourmet Dinners

On Monday night, Rachael Gangji cooked a well received fish pie, and Lara Hunter prepared a tasty trifle and strawberry meringue to round off the meal.

Tonight’s (Tuesday night’s) chef is Brian Coffey, cooking mediterranean chicken.

The match schedule for the remainder of the Gourmet Dinners is HERE.

Today’s matches

Today was a matter of some luck as to whether the hard courts would be playable in between showers, some of them very heavy. There was no chance of playing on the grass, though it is convenient to position chairs to watch the matches on the hard courts!

During the day, Brian Coffey, the bionic man with two artificial hips and two artificial knees, and also the chef for the Tuesday Gourmet Dinner, played the eighth seed, Joseph Rigal. Although Brian has been playing quite a bit recently, Joseph has been improving a lot, and is both more consistent and just as hard hitting as ever. Joseph won 6-1 6-1.

Gourmet dinners

If you would like to go to the Gourmet Dinners, please reply to the last email about them.

Match schedule for the Gourmet dinners is HERE.

Saturday’s match

Despite the rain, one match still got played. Fortunately, the draws are in good shape at this point.

Brian Coffey & Barry Adamson played Jonathan Bell & Steve Yoo in the men’s doubles. I don’t have a report on this. Jonathan and Steve won 6-1 6-3.

Sunday’s matches

Despite the rain doing its best to keep all the courts wet, four matches were played on the hard courts.

There was a second match lined up for the winners of the previous match.. So Elena Valarche & Barry Adamson next played the married couple of Dominic Green & Karina Wilsher. Dominic has a good serve, but may not have been giving the match top priority. He had been playing football earlier in the day, and was thus, perhaps, not as fast around the court as he might have been. Karina has some strong groundstrokes, but they are not necessarily that consistent. It sounds like Dominic won all his service games, but that was it for the challengers. Barry and Elena won the match 6-2 6-2.

In the men’s singles, Geoff Isaacs had to play the third seed, Logan Mair. Geoff is pretty consistent, but if Logan was on form, he would have too much power for Geoff. Logan won the match 6-3 6-1.

Thursday match

On Thursday the only match reported was between Jeff Fine and the fifth seed, Philip Reid. Jeff plays pretty regularly nowadays, and took the trouble to warm up for 30 minutes with some serving practice, which paid dividends. Philip is very fit and hits the ball very hard.

The match was much closer than I was expecting. Jeff mostly held serve, but Philip used his pace and stamina and retrieved a lot of Jeff’s drop shots and lobs to good effect. Philip won the match 7-5 6-4.

Friday matches

Two matches were successfully played today. Not surprisingly, the rest were rained off!!!

In the mixed, Bruce Rigal & Barbara Thomas took on the third seeds, Ed Fitzgerald & Sue Ehr. Bruce and Barbara have a consistent game, but not the same pace as Ed and Sue, who seems to be playing more consistently nowadays. Barbara had been playing in the rain the evening before, had developed a bit of a sniffle, and was not really on top form for the 10 am. start. And Bruce’s normally reliable serve was not firing on all four cylinders, as it would have had to in his doubles win with Aaron Watkins over the second-seeded Jeffs . It was always going to be tough anyway, but the challengers felt they didn’t get it together properly. Bruce and Barbara got a couple of games in the first set, including one on Ed’s serve, before he warmed up properly, but no more. Ed and Sue won 6-2 6-0.

Steve Yoo played James Lowe, the seventh seed, in the singles. It looks like Steve took his time to get into the match, as he won only 1 game in the first set. He won rather more games in the second set, but James won the match 6-1 6-4.

Richard Keep has had to withdraw due to work assignments in Germany next week. That is a shame as I was rather looking forward to seeing him play Philip Reid in the singles!

Don’t forget to sign up for the Gourmet Dinners Monday to Thursday next week. List is in the clubhouse near bar entrance, or respond to the email which was sent out.

Today’s matches

Roughly half the total matches have now been played.

There were 4 men’s singles matches today. The first three matches were very one sided affairs. So far, no seed has been beaten in the men’s singles.

Greg Lim, the second seed, beat David Cohen 6-0 6-1 and will now face James Low (7th seed) or Steve Yoo.

Richard Keep, the fourth seed, beat Bruce Rigal 6-0 6-0 and will now face Philip Reid (5th seed) or Jeff Fine.

The unseeded Geoff Isaacs beat Fred Davidson 6-1 6-1, and will now face Logan Mair (3rd seed).

The most interesting match was on hard court 4 (don’t be fooled by the photo), between the unseeded players Jasper Tresidder and Maxi Lampert. Jasper thinks of himself as more of a doubles than singles player stylistically. Perhaps underestimating the demands of singles on a hard court, he had been for a cycle ride beforehand, and had been warming up his serves an hour before the match. The first five games went well for Jasper – he was 5-0 up. But then the preliminary exercise, humidity and required singles exertions got to him and he started to show signs of fatigue, then lost rhythm on his strokes. Trying to keep the points short resulted in more unforced errors and the loss of the next 6 games.

At the point when I enquired about the score, Jasper was 5-6 down. He won the next game to bring up the tie break, which he lost [7-3]. But now Jasper didn’t have enough energy or concentration left in the second set, which Maxi took 6-0 for a 7-6 [7-3] 6-0 victory. Maxi faces Ed Fitzgerald (6th seed) next.

Remember to sign up for the Gourmet dinners – see details on previous tournament reports.

Today’s matches

There were seven matches played today, breaking the back of the first round matches.

In the evening, most of the courts were in use for matches.

In a mixed on hard court 4, Lesley South & Jonathan Bell took on the third seeds Sue Ehr & Ed Fitzgerald. Backed by the consistent Jonathan, on grass, Lesley South, can fully utilise here excellent angled short shots, and these can be pretty devastating. But on a hard court the ball bounces much slower and higher, and mobile opponents can run rather more of them down. Both Ed and Sue are highly mobile, with some very strong groundstrokes, so would have run these shots down. At well over 6 feet, Ed is also pretty difficult to beat on the lob.

The match took some time (as matches on a hard court tend to), but the third seeds won it comfortably enough in the end with a 6-3 6-2 victory.

 

In the singles, Aryell Mossaioff played the fifth seed, Philip Reid. Aryell played a strong game, and forced a number of error from Philip. But Philip has pacy groundstrokes and serves, and just had too much for Aryell. Philip won the match 6-2 6-4.

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.

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.

After Sultan Gangji promised a can of tennis balls as a prize to the winner of the first tournament match played, the tournament started in earnest with three matches on Thursday 29 July.

Bruce Rigal won the can of balls by beating Paul Rubie in a tight match 7-6 6-1. He also had competition from Logan Mair who beat Michael Siviter more easily 6-0 6-0 and Matt Wasser & Eugene Belin who beat Charles Rubinstein & Richard Nightingale 6-2 6-2.

On the Saturday the weather looked dodgy, but a couple of matches were played. Ed Fitzpatrick beat Charles Rubinstein 6-0 6-1 in the singles, and Bruce Rigal & Aaron Watkins beat Magnus Stuxberg & Pavel Markiewicz 6-3 6-2 in the doubles.

Does anyone have any pictures or more detail on the matches?