November saw the inaugural vets and open competition in Cardiff at the Virgin Active Club. It was held between Friday 23 and Sunday 25 November using the indoor acrylic courts.
The vets were offered both men’s and ladies events in most categories but once all entries were received we were able to run men’s 45’s, 50’s 55’s, and 60’s plus an open competition which had an A and B draw. For the ladies we were only able to run a 55’s and an open competition. The vets events ran over the three days but the open competition was restricted to the weekend. Over 60 entries were received which was very encouraging for the initial event.
The concept of the entire competition was to offer players an equal amount of matches regardless of their success. Therefore the draws were either run as compass draws or the players were played in boxes. Virgin Active kindly donated racket bags as prizes and trophies were given to the winners and runners up in the vets events. We are also grateful to Tennis Wales (South) Seniors and Seniors Tennis GB for their financial backing and Tennis Wales for promoting the event
The winners and runners up are listed below:-
Womens Open Winner-Lowri James Runner-up-Stephanie Davies
Womens over 55s Winner-Shirley James Runner-up-Valerie Alder
Mens Open Winner-Nikki Giles Runner-up-Simon Richards
Mens Open B Winner-David Lecoq Runner up-Witold Stephens-Kedziola
Mens over 45s Winner-Mark Rowe Runner-up-Stephen Patient
Mens over 50s Winner-Mike Harpin Runner-up-Paul Thompson
Mens over 55s Winner-Myles Collett Runner-up-Peter Ford
Mens over 55s B Winner-C hris Evans Runner up-John Miller
Mens over 65s Winner-Peter Boshier-Jones Runner-up-Geoffrey Dimmock
Feedback from players was very positive and both Donna and I who run the tennis events organisation “Tennis Solutions” hope to organise similar events in the future, perhaps annually or six-monthly.