Just a reminder that there will be a formal “thank you” tea for Michal Forys, this Sunday, 20 July over tea at around 4.30 pm (whatever the weather). Everyone welcome.
Michal has been coaching at West Heath since 2008, and he and his family are leaving soon to return to live in Poland. He has made a great contribution to the club and the Men’s 1st team. He will be working until early next week and will return again for a couple of weeks at the beginning of September, after which a new club coach will be appointed.
From Monday, 28 July until the end of August, club member and Level 2 qualified coach, Richard Keep, will be available for lessons or as a hitting partner. You can contact him on 07453 954 288. Sessions are £40 per hour.
Menu for Gourmet Dinner for Thursday 24th July, from Lesley
Another reminder : put your name down on the Clubhouse list for the Gourmet Dinners Monday to Thursday next week, and for the Finals Day BBQ.
Wednesday 16 July
There were no matches played on Wednesday, due to the Ladies’ First Team match at home. The WH Ladies won by 14-10 points).
Jen Ananda-Rajan (Ehr), the former captain, came to support the team, bringing Jesse, her 7 week old baby, to see her team mates play. If Jen and Josh move back to London, after Josh graduates from theological college in Oxford, then Jesse could well end up as a third generation West Heath team player!!
Katie, Jessie and Jen
Sultan Ganji & Katie Baston were given a walkover by Peter Davies & Emily Harrold in their Mixed Quarter Final. Although everyone was available at various times over the next weekend, none of them coincided.
Thursday 17 July
Two matches were played, but only one completed, due to the rain. Another match did not even get that far, again due to the rain.
Dan Angel played Joe Rigal, the 7th seed, in the Men’s Singles. The wet grass courts forced a retreat on to the hard courts, which reduced Joe’s expected advantage somewhat.
Battle hardened from his long standing friendship and tennis rivalry with Margaux Valarche, Dan plays a very consistent game, and can keep the ball in play well. Joe has a variety of strong shots, including the serve, which are particularly effective on grass, but less so on a hard court.
In the shock of the tournament so far, Dan managed to get everything back from Joe, often moonballing him with the return. Joe’s error rate increased as he tried to generate more pressure on Dan, but this resulted in errors. The final score was 6-1 6-2 to Dan, who now has to play Marcio in the Quarter Final.
Mark Webb & Lesley South played Orhun Güley & Carine Valarche in the first round of the Mixed Doubles. The first set must have been really tight as it went to a set tie break, won by Orhun & Carine 10-8 for a 7-6⁸ set (as they say nowadays).
Unfortunately the rain intervened and the match will have to be finished another day.
Geoff Isaacs and Eric Petsopoulos were also scheduled to play, but the rain intervened. Geoff provisionally booked a court at Westway, which is a long way away, but in the end scratched in favour of Eric.
Friday 18 July
By contrast, a full programme of 8 matches were played on Friday, of which 5 were Men’s Singles, and the other three were different flavours of doubles.
First off, Kris Engley played Richard Keep, the 6th seed and stand in coach for end of July and August. This was Men’s Second Team vs First Team. A lot of early matches are uneven, and end up with the loser getting no more than 1 game in total. This wasn’t quite like that, with Kris getting a couple of games in each set for a 6-2 6-2 victory to Richard.
Paul O’Flynn and J P Doumeng battled it out in a singles on hard court 4 (difficult to follow with matches on all three grass courts), to see who would contest the second round with Marcio Sugui, immediately following the first match. The first set was pretty tight, going to a tie break, which J P took 7-2 (Paul thinks). In the second set, J P very much took the upper hand with a 6-1 win, to take the match 7-6² 6-1.
So the follow-up second round match, this time on hard court 5, became J P Doumeng vs Marcio Sugui, the 2nd seed. Marcio plays a lot of tournaments and is a tough nut to crack, but JP got one game in the second set, for a 6-0 6-1 victory to Marcio.
On grass court 3, Eugene Belin had to play George White, who plays for the Men’s First Team. The mismatch was too much for Eugene to address, though he won a number of points and one game on his own serve in the second set.
The most competitive Men’s Singles of the day was undoubtedly between Blake Fillion and Olly Turner, the 2024 Club Singles Champion. Blake was a member a few years ago while on assignment to London, and has now returned.
Blake is a very useful singles player, and seemed to be winning most of the points, though such surveys are often misleading. Meanwhile, Olly was going for it, which meant he was generally hitting winners or making mistakes, and got broken at least once that I saw.
The first set score was pretty competitive, at 6-4 to Olly. But he forced one further game than that, in the second set, to take the match 6-4 6-3.
In the Ladies Doubles, Susan Grossman & Sophia Melas (a new member this season), a scratch partnership, played Moira Duncan & Lesley South, a more settled pairing. Sophia was highly mobile on the court, and made few mistakes while Susan put away a number of balls at the net. Lesley made some of her trademark angled winners, and Moira hit consistently and did a fair bit of running to retrieve balls.
In the first set, Susan and Sophia delivered a shock by taking the lead and winning the set 6-4, much to the delight of Susan. This must have spurred Moira and Lesley to greater efforts in the second set, which they took 6-2. So everything was on the 10 point Champions Tie Break. Moira and Lesley seemed to be leading by a point half the time, but Susan and Sophia kept pulling them back. However, at the end of the tie break, Lesley pulled off two of her trademark angled shots to give the more experience pair the tie break at 10-7, and the match 4-6 6-2 [10-7].
The Men’s Doubles match between Romain Meunier &
Eric Petsopoulos and Greg Lim & James Li-Tremble, the second seeds and first team players, was hidden away on hard court 4 from the eager spectators. The challengers thought they were playing well, but the seeds on the other side of the net acted like a brick wall to repel incoming aggressive play, according to Eric. Greg and James won the match 6-1 6-0.
In the “return revenge” Mixed Doubles match of the day, Joe Rigal & Becca Vaughan, the second seed, played Dan Angel & Elena Valarche. The previous day (Thursday), Dan Angel had provided the first upset of Sultan’s seedings by beating Joe Rigal in the Men’s Singles.
This time, ably supported by Becca, Joe made no mistake, and made far fewer errors. Elena did her best at the net, and Dan placed some accurate shots, but Joe and Becca were not to be denied and took the match 6-2 6-1.
