7th July – The first of our two championships finals days was on 7th July and featured the finals of the Men’s Singles, Handicap Doubles and Mixed Doubles events. The weather forecast was dreadful and, at 10:15, the view through a wet windscreen in the car park didn’t auger well.
However, the rain stopped about 10:30 and the Men’s Singles started before 11:00. It featured Alex Rynhoud, who is 15 in August, and Dan Rippon, last year’s beaten finalist and, after two sets of high quality tennis, Dan took the title 6-3 6-4.
The Handicap Doubles was, however, interrupted by rain, and, although the players gamely carried on as the rain started falling, they had to take shelter on a couple of occasions. Jenny Sheppard & Estelle Cash, on +15, were up against Phil Timm & Tom Hatcher, on -15. After an entertaining match, four wet players came off court, with Sheppard & Cash having won 6-1 6-4.
Claudio then started the formal presentation, introducing Rob Walter who is the new Chair of Berkshire LTA. After presenting trophies to the Men’s Singles and Handicap Doubles winners and runners up, Mike Smith accepted the President’s Cup on behalf of his wife, Karen, for exceptional service on behalf of the club. Karen was club Chair from 1994 until 2002 when she took over as Treasurer, a role she eventually handed over to Lorraine Fowler in 2023.
Next was the Mixed Doubles with Cath Sillitoe & Russell Finch facing Michaela Appleby & Alex Rynhoud. It started with a game of 5 deuces as Michaela held on to her serve and was followed 4 games later by another 5 deuce game as she held on once again. The score, 4-1, could so easily have been a lot closer. Eventually, Alex and Michaela came out on top to take the set 6-3 and afer another equally entertaining set, the second 6-2 and the title.
Many thanks to Tournament Organiser Russell Finch, Claudio and Maddy, to name but a few of those who contributed to making is a great day, but especially the players and not forgetting those who came to watch. It could have been a miserable, wet day but remarkably, all three finals were played before the rain arrived yet again.
15th September – The second finals day was on 15th September and featured the finals of the Men’s Doubles and Handicap Singles events. The Ladies’ Doubles was cancelled due to too many pairs withdrawing before the final.
The weather was fine and the Men’s Doubles, featuring Russell Finch & Peter Collier against Matt Paxton & Chris Torkington started on time. Although there were several long games with entertaining rallies, the raw power of Collier combined with the steadiness of Finch, who hardly missed a shot, meant that there were no free points for Paxton & Torkington who were unable to make any inroads and the result was a 6-1 6-2 win for Finch & Collier.
Next was the Handicap Singles with Russell Finch again featuring, this time against Chris Harvey. Russell, the tournament organiser, always gives himself a difficult handicap in this event and this time was no exception with him starting on -30 and Chris with+30 start. The sudden death deuce meant Russell had to win 6 points before Chris had won 2. Russell started in the same style as he had played in the doubles final, not missing a shot and winning a string of points to gain a substantial lead. However, Chris gradually steadied his game, pulling off some excellent serves on game points to almost level the score before Russell closed out the set 6-4. In the second set, Chris went ahead with Russell getting to deuce in several games only to miss the vital game points and eventually conceding the set 3-6. The decider was a tiebreak to 9 with Russell starting on zero and Chris on 6. Russell won 6 points in a row to level at 6-6 but faltered to let Chris in to level at 8-8, only for Russell to clinch the breaker 9-8 and win the title.
Club Chair, Claudio Altini, wound up procedings by presenting Russell with a couple of bottles of wine for his hard work over the years in organising the Club Championships. It was fitting that Russell should eventually end up as a winner having finished runner-up in the Men’s Doubles as many as 6 times. Thanks also to Mike Smith who umpired the men’s doubles and also to Andrew Morrison who took on the more complex task of umpiring the handicap singles.