The League Secretary of the South Warwickshire Summer Tennis League, Corin Bishop announced that the "King Cup" will be awarded to Chipping Campden Tennis Club with the title of "Club of the Year" in 2018”.
Photo is of the Chipping Campden A Team Runners-Up in Wildmoor League
From Left to Right: Geoff Vaughan (Club Coach), Tobias Kemp, George Richards (Men’s Captain) and Tom Partridge.
Chipping Campden Tennis Club have had an impeccable year with three Men’s teams and two Junior pairs entered into the various Wildmoor Tennis League competitions where they have had an excellent season. After getting all three teams promoted last year all three teams have again achieved great results in their respective divisions this summer.
Their top Men’s A Team, who had won the Division One Championship last year and got promoted up to the Premier Division, completed the 2018 season as runners-up, missing out on the title to very strong League Champions Stratford-on-Avon, which is no mean achievement.
Meanwhile, the Men’s B Team finished fourth in Division Two, the highest they have ever finished in the league. Campden’s C Team were a respectable third in Division Four, pushing for promotion and one of the top two positions right to the end of the season, looking for back to back promotions. It also does the club credit that all three teams were able to field both pairs for all their league matches.
Chipping Campden B in Division Two of the Wildmoor Tennis League.
Left to Right: Johan Van Der Sterran, Mac Partridge, Julian Ebbutt and Richard Gough (Captain).
Chipping Campden have been involved with the Wildmoor Spa League for 21 years since joining in 1998. From the Men’s teams George Richards is the captain and organiser of the A Team, while Guy Madgwick captains and runs the B Team and Richard Gough captains and administers to the C Team, who only missed-out on promotion this year by one place. All three have done a splendid job organising their teams without a blemish especially this year.
As well as the team success, in the last few years the club has had all three courts resurfaced and an extra court added. Social nights are always well attended and the coaching and junior programmes seem to be running very successfully. The club’s Junior Section entered two teams into the Wildmoor Summer Tennis League’s Junior Cup competition. They finished creditable runners-up in their Pool B after some close matches, while the B Team finished fourth.
The Chipping Campden Coach who was in charge of the Junior squad is Geoff. Vaughan. He also runs coaching sessions not only for the members of the club but summer camps and sessions after the League season finishes for players from outside who wish to participate.
Incidentally, as well as success in the Wildmoor Summer League the A Team finished top of Division Two of last season’s Winter League. The Mixed A Team won Division One of the Stratford & District Mixed Winter League and their newly entered Mixed B Team finished third, just missing out on promotion in their first season in Division Five.
Chipping Campden also finished second in Division One of Team Tennis in the Gloucestershire League and in addition entered a team back into the Gloucestershire Summer League where they currently lie top.
Chipping Campden were eligible for this award firstly because they enter teams into the Wildmoor League Junior Cup competition. This restricted the numbers to 9 clubs from the 23 in the league. Then the decision was based on their excellent record as they had not transgressed the rules and fulfilled all their fixtures with a full team. This left a short list of four clubs. Apart from Campden they were Alcester (last year’s winners), Pershore and Stratford. Considering the number of teams they had run, Campden had an excellent and unblemished record. Added to which they were in the running in the last couple of seasons for this award and last year were in the final two before being beaten at the post by Alcester. Therefore, it was only right and fitting that the “King Cup” for the Club of the Year 2018 has been awarded to Chipping Campden Tennis Club.
They will be presented, with the trophy at the Annual Presentation day on Sunday, September 2nd, 2018 at Alcester Tennis Club and will hold the trophy for a year.
Wildmoor Spa Tennis League – 2018-24
By Corin Bishop