Sunday 8th September saw Basildon Lawn Tennis Club host a touchtennis showcase tournament in order to promote the game and get more and more players involved.
Following on from highly successful touchtennis tournaments in August, namely the Babolat Masters at Brentwood Hard Tennis Club and the Westcliff 300 Series tournament held at Westcliff Hard, touchtennis enthusiasts Luke Mayes and David Capper, with the support Rashid Ahmad, founder of touchtennis, invited players from all over South Essex to attend and try touchtennis, many playing for the first time!
The event attracted 30 participants for the doubles tournament, with players coming from Basildon LTC, Hockley LTC, David Lloyd Basildon, Kent Elms Tennis Club and Westcliff Hard Tennis Club, and after many rounds of long rallies and “banter” the final was won by Simon Mayes and Anand Kumar from David Lloyd Basildon in a tough 3 set match in the rain!
The Singles event, with 22 players taking part, followed the doubles finals and local boy Martin Ellen from Basildon Tennis Club took the trophy after a long rain soaked 3 set match.
Commenting on the event, David Capper said, the great thing about touchtennis is that the game is a real leveller, meaning players of all standards can play each other competitively. In this tournament the youngest player was 9 and the oldest was in their 60’s, everyone had a fantastic time and the standard of play was really high.
The future of touchtennis is bright and locally in South Essex David and Luke are looking to get more people playing in regular league nights starting in the autumn.
If anyone is interested in playing David Capper can be contacted through Basildon tennis website at
www.basildontennis.co.uk
For more information on touchtennis please go to:
www.touchtennis.com or www.lta.org.uk/clubs-schools/touchtennis/