This year the tournament attracted entries from eleven Notts League clubs, slightly down on last year, but with the overall standard of play higher than we have so far seen in the short time that this event has been run.
Originally scheduled to be played on grass it was disappointing for the players to learn that repair work to the courts was still in progress and so the matches had to take place on the Nottingham Tennis Centre hard courts instead.
The ladies singles final for the Edith Middleton Challenge Bowl, played in hot bright sunshine was very much closer than the score line suggests with Lianne Tapson, Grantham T.C. the new champion beating Maia Dunn, David Lloyd W.B. 6-3 6-3.
In the ladies doubles Lianne Tapson and her partner Mell Miller were denied a second win for Grantham by the skilful and very experienced long standing partnership of Ann Brown and Sue Copestake who made sure of the title for the West Bridgford T.C. with a 6-2 6-4. win.
The Edith Middleton Challenge Cup for the mens singles event produced the match of the day with patience and power in equal measure skillfully displayed by Chris Dornan, Keyworth T.C. and Abdul Hassan, The Park T.C, with the finely balanced second set eventually going to Chris to clinch the title 6-3 7-5.
The mens doubles event gave Sam Bass and Richard Cragg their chance to secure a second title for Grantham T.C. with a 6-3 6-2. win over the Attenborough pair Saul Abbiss and Chris Lacey.
With the date for this event clashing rather with the Wimbledon finals weekend, next years Champions Tournament will be at a little later and more towards the end of July. Please keep this in mind when fixing your holiday dates.
My thanks to all the clubs and the players taking part, and to Peter Whitehead at the N.T.C. for the fine venue, and to Greg Ella for his hard work helping to smooth out most of the bumps. I hope to see you all plus a few more at next year’s event.
John Poxon.