TOURNAMENT TIME AGAIN

To start at the beginning, the preparation work for a tournament of collecting and arranging inscriptions is known to the members, although appreciated in its entirety only to the few.  Our recent July event was exceptional in the volume of applicants, which for the first time in the history of the Club reached over 700! It is difficult to imagine the amount of work this has involved before and on a daily basis during the play; and so it is hoped that members anxious to follow their usual passionate tennis programme were sufficiently understanding of the constraints they had to put up with.  I'm sure that many of them will already be making up for lost time today and all this week.

A word of thanks to dear Fred, who kept the courts in impeccable condition during this period;  here he is transporting brickdust from the recently replenished stack to form the statuory 3 mm surface layer on each of our 5 claycourts.

After two weeks of concentrated and often hectic play for both Senior and numerous Veteran categories, we eventually arrived at the match Finals for which prizes were to be awarded. Here now is Olivier standing ready behind the Cups for his Opening Speech to Prizewinners and friends.......

Hardly credible, but completely true;  the expected crowd of Champions and Well-Wishers were all absent:  no-one to listen to Olivier!

Here they are, not far away;  you have perhaps already guessed where they were and what they were intent on watching!

Wimbledon Men's Final on TV!  

And it took quite a time for Federer to win tie-break of the second set...

Back to the Prize-Giving eventually:  and the usual devoted team joins Olivier..........

Just a few of the fortunate winners:

  

   

               

      

A side of bacon that you see above is called a 'flitch'; the term persists in the English town of Dunmow, Essex, where a yearly ceremony awards a flitch of bacon to the unlikely couple who prove they have lived a year and a day in conjugal harmony.  Quite a challenge! The final figure, Louis, looking unfamilarly timid here, would like everyone to know that in spite of this unexpected success, Tennis is not really his game - but he is a very good Squash player.

And here is the group photo:

BONNE CHANCE ET BON TENNIS!