To celebrate the recent GB success in the Davis Cup, Westward Ho! Tennis Club held its own event in between Christmas and the New Year. (In fact this was meant to be in November, following the actual Cup in Belgium, but rain prevented any play that day).
Players were put in to 4 countries - France, Belgium, USA and Australia, and with some tweaking to the conventional format to make it a mixed event, each team comprised 3 ladies and 2 men. The ladies played one mixed and one ladies' doubles, the men played one singles and one mixed doubles. Each match being one long set, and each team playing all the others in a round robin.
After the morning matches had been played, (and more importantly, there was a break for lunch - food always playing an important part in Westward Ho! activities), the resulting positions were set for the final matches: first placed Australia played France, and Belgium played USA.
The end result was France emerging as champions, with USA beating Belgium for third place.
Regrettably there was no magnificent Davis Cup to present to the winning team, but a modest china sugar bowl was used and proudly displayed by the victorious captain, before being returned to the clubhouse in time for tea!
Representatives from the club said, “It was a great day, with lots of fun, yet highly competitive tennis being played. We were lucky with the weather and it was good to have a run around in the fresh air to shift some extra pounds gained over the festive season.
We shall be staging a similar event in March, when GB plays Japan in the first round of the 2016 competition.”
