Hampshire and IOW LTA held their inaugural Champion of Champions event on Sunday 24th September at Totton & Eling Tennis Centre with Jenny Sayer as organiser / Referee.
Clubs had been invited to nominate their Men’s Doubles and Ladies’ Doubles Club Champions (from either 2016 or 2017) or a pair that had played regularly in the County Babolat Leagues. There were Men’s and Ladies’ pairs nominated from 11 Clubs:
Alverstoke, Avondale, Denmead, David Lloyd West End, Lee-on-the-Solent, Manydown, Milford, Totton & Eling, Ventnor, Warsash, Winchester
The format was short sets with round robin boxes followed by a main draw with playoffs.
In the Ladies Final Lee-on-the-Solent’s Kelly Burge & Lauren Howard beat Winchester’s Hannah Crawford & Freya Davies
In the Men’s Final David Lloyd Southampton West End’s Chris Bixley & Jake Macey lost to Warash’s Liam Hignett and Jake Norris.
The event was very successful with all players really enjoying the event and all feedback was very positive.
Richard Cutler, Chairman of Hampshire & IOW LTA, said:
“We are committed to raising the profile of County tennis thereby retaining talented players in the sport for longer. This event was a wonderful way to gather those players together, the standard and atmosphere were fantastic and we look forward to running this event every year.”
The event will continue in 2018 and will enhanced to include more events, eg Mixed Doubles.
A big thank you to Totton & Eling Tennis Centre for hosting the event, to Sandra Holmes for organising and to Jenny Sayer for refereeing.