On Sunday 17th June the finals of the Warwickshire Veterans Tournament were played at Edgbaston Priory Club. Unfortunately, the weather had not been kind during the week, so the matches were played on the astro courts instead of the grass.
This event saw 23 teams playing from 16 clubs across Warwickshire. Round robin leagues have been running since January and the final 4 teams from Four Oaks, Leamington, Blossomfield B and Beechwood contested the finals day.
A strong Four Oaks team won their semi-final fairly comfortably 4-0 against Blossomfield B. Meanwhile, last year’s winners Beechwood were having a very close encounter with Leamington. They drew 2-2 in rubbers, but Leamington won through to the final 6-4 on amount of sets won.
The final was a great match with some spectators even coming from the Centre court to watch the intensity of the battle. The Leamington ladies Sara Butler and Cynthia Jackson won their match quite comfortably while Tony King and Mark Creswell levelled the match for Four Oaks with a close 2 set victory over Martyn Todd and Richard Butler. The mixed matches were both very close. Richard and Cynthia came from 8-4 down in the match tie-break to beat Mark and Jo Frank 10-8. Meanwhile, after winning the 1st set 6-2, Martyn and Sara managed to claw back and take Tony and Judy Hanley to a 2nd set tiebreak which they won 7-1. Therefore, congratulations go to Leamington as the 3rd winners of this prestigious event.
Finally, I’d like to say a few thanks to Graeme Baker and the club captains for making the event run smoothly. To Mervyn Stone for his support and presentation of the trophy and prizes and finally to Rory McCutcheon for sorting out all the bookings on the final day.