On Sunday 3rd July, we combined our first day of Championship finals with the Official Opening of our new Clubhouse. Guests of Honour were Caroline Smith, Wokingham Borough Mayor, and Denise Walker, Secretary Berkshire Tennis.
It was a great day for the club combining a good turnout for our guests and finalists, excellent tennis and fine weather!
The day began with the Handicap Doubles final with Steve Stow and Lorraine Fowler facing Mark Lardner and David Stone. The format was the best of 9 tie-breaks to 12 with Steve and Lorraine starting on 6. The result was a 5-2 win for Mark and David with the overall points totals 76-72, showing that the handicapper did an excellent job. It was an entertaining match with two games going 12-11 to the eventual winners showing how close Steve and Lorraine were to getting the result.
Next we had an extra event, an exhibition singles between Luke Tearall and James Brennan to entertain the crowd until the official clubhouse opening began at 1 o’clock. Luke and James were the losing semi-finalists in the Men’s Singles event and they put on a good show. For the record, Luke won a bottle of beer and James got the bottle opener!
Russell Finch, in the umpire’s chair, once again had done a great job of organising the first three events of the tournament despite COVID-19, injuries and holidays making it difficult at times. The draws for the remaining events, finals 18th September, will appear shortly.
At 1 o’clock, the formal opening of the clubhouse began…
Richard McCully, former Chairman of CTC and leader of the group who oversaw the construction of the building, gave a short opening address, with a summary of the project, before welcoming the Mayor of Wokingham Borough Cllr Caroline Smith. The Mayor then gave a short speech in which she talked about the importance of sport in maintaining mental health. She praised the achievement of the Club in raising the necessary funds and managing to complete the project despite the Covid pandemic.
As well as the Mayor and her consort, Mr Mike Smith, Crowthorne Tennis club were also joined by Ms Denise Walker, Secretary of Berkshire County Tennis. After the speeches, CTC’s own Mike Smith, Secretary of the Club, presented an award to Richard McCully for Services to the Club for all his work on the construction of the new clubhouse. Richard later wrote an email stating that he was accepting it personally as well as on behalf of the other major key contributors to the clubhouse project.
After the Mayor had cut the ribbon to open the clubhouse, everyone enjoyed lunch provided by the club and members. Many thanks to Alison Nicholson, Caroline Atkinson and Jenny Sheppard who did most of the organisation both before and on the day.
In the Men’s Singles final, 15 yr old Jake Griffiths became the third teenager in a row to win the mens singles tournament with a hard fought 6-2 2-6 6-4 win over Guy Smith-Bingham. It was an entertaining contest with fine hitting from both players, with a sharp contrast in styles adding to the intrigue.The first set went with serve to 3-2 but then Guy took control and got the first of two consecutive breaks to win the first set 6-2 leaving Jake looking pretty unhappy with his game.
However Jake got straight back into the match breaking Guy in the first game of the second set, and, using his remarkable consistency and some excellent passing shots, stretched his lead to 4-0. Despite Guy finding some form again, Jake held on for a 6-2 win. The third set repeated the second with Jake taking a 4-0 lead before Guy increased the aggression and with some powerful hitting and smart use of serve and volley climbed back to 4-5, leaving Jake to serve for the title. Jake fought fire with fire and stepped up the hitting, allied to some excellent serving and took the set 6-4 and the title.
The final event was the Mixed Doubles with last year’s runners-up, James Thackray and Maggie Ingham, facing Matt Paxton and Tina Stern. The first four games went with service followed by four breaks of serve but, at 4-4, James held his service and Matt was broken to make it first set to James and Maggie. In the second set, Matt and Tina came back strongly to lead 4-1 and held on to take the set 6-2. The final set was close to 3-3 but, with Maggie losing her service after seven deuces, Tina held her service and James was broken to make it 6-3 to Matt and Tina and, with it, the title.