Tournament Caps Off A Great End To The Season

Glossop Tennis Club wound up a busy summer holiday season with their Club Doubles Tournament recently.

The event was well attended, with 28 members ready to go from 9.00am despite the threat all week of rain. A fantastic day ensued and the rain obliged to stay away. Once again the tournament attracted some new and younger members to compete against the old hands.

Following the highly successful format employed for the singles tournament in June, organiser Matt Blaney operated a similar round robin event for the morning matches with the winners and losers progressing to knockout events in the main and plate finals respectively. Once again this ensured everyone played at least four matches.

The morning sessions saw some predictably tight affairs but all the seeds swept through to the afternoon although they were joined by  some surprise players: notably new member Adam Rossi proving a very able partner for the established Luke Robinson. 

All four courts were in action with a swift turnaround between matches to ensure the competition would be completed in a single day.

In the afternoon main event final,  Matt Blaney and Paul Higginbottom triumphed in a three set thriller over Mike Pocock and Jon Horlock. The first two sets swung one way then the other as break points were won and lost and going into the decider each pair had won a set 6-5. There was some tremendous big hitting and fabulous rallies to entertain spectators. In the final set played as a ten point championship format Matt and Paul came out worthy winners 10-3. 

The quality of tennis in both the semi-finals and final was a credit to the stamina of all four players who had battled through long tiring rallies.

In the plate final Ian Higginbottom and Pete Auger beat Richard Leyshon and Will Blaney two sets to love: 6-5 and 6-1. Richard and Will had earlier come through a marathon three set semi-final and just couldn’t keep up with Ian and Pete. 

Everyone commented what a fabulous day it had been. Special thanks once again go to Matt Blaney for his superb tournament organisation ably assisted by Paul and Tilly Darwin providing regular bacon butties.  Thanks also to all those who provided food and refreshments for the day.

Club membership is available all year round. Contact the Membership secretary Andy Millican at glossoptennismembers@gmail.com   or call 07500 909579 for more information.