With the club's junior members now dominating the club's Open Championships, the annual Over 40s Tournament now presents an opportunity for the club's more mature members to show their prowess on court, unencumbered by the youngsters. The tournament for 2024 was played over the whole weekend of Saturday and Sunday of 4 and 5 July, being held later this year to accommodate the Junior Championships contested over the previous weekend.
In the past, the afternoon of Saturday has been avoided to permit the normal club day to run. However, because our women members wished to avoid playing women's doubles and mixed doubles on one day, it was decided to move the womens's doubles to Saturday afternoon and cancel the the normal club day for the weekend. As most of the members who attend club days entered in the tournament, few members were inconvenienced.
Despite the later date, the numbers of entries were reasonable, alhough only six pairs entered for the men's doubles event. Eleven pairs entered the women's doubles event and thirteen pairs entered the mixed doubles event. These numbers resulted in a total of 35 matches being scheduled to be played over the weekend, 19 on the Saturday and the balance (for the mixed doubles event) on the Sunday. The rescheduling of the women's doubles event to Saturday afternoon worked well and is likely to be repeated for future tournaments.
The format used was best of 13 games (first to 7 with a tie-break at 6-all if required) and a "sudden death" point on second deuce. This was used throughout the three events and enabled the match start times to roughly keep to schedule over the weekend. All main and consolation draw mixed doubles matches were completed by 4pm on Sunday afternoon.
As for last year, the weather was very tennis friendly on both days, being warm, cloudy and with little wind, conditions that were enjoyed by all participants.
Most matches were decided within the initial 12 games or less, with three only being decided by the tie-break game.
The performance of the player pairs in the matches largely aligned with the tournament director's (estimated) seedings with the top or second seeds winning each of the three events. However, it was good to see the fifth seeds in the women's doubles event, Diona Juriss and Mira Trifunovic, win through to defeat the top seeds (in the tiebreak game) in the semifinal, although losing in the final to the second seeds, Janina Pawlak and Glenda van Drimmelen-Craven.
Thanks are due to Simon Richardson and John Hughes, who manhandled the club's BBQ over to Court 1 on the Sunday afternoon and fed hotdogs with sausages and onions to the mixed doubles players and the many spectators who stayed on to watch the semifinals and finals of the main and consolation draws.
From comments received by the tournament director, the revised programme of holding the women's event on Saturday afternoon was much appreciated. Many remarked on the pleasant weather over the whole weekend. It was obvious that ,as in prevous years, t that both players and spectators enjoyed thethe tournament.
For the record, the tournament results were as follows:
Men’s Doubles
Winners: Raj Chakraborti & Warren Fraser
Runners-up: Rodney Moon & Adam Pryor
Men’s Doubles Consolation
Winners: Allister Ford & John Hughes
Runners-up: Tim Brosnahan & Peter Metham
Women’s Doubles
Winners: Janina Pawlak & Glenda van Drimmelen-Craven
Runners-up: Diona Juriss & Mira Trifunovic
Women’s Doubles Consolation
Winners: Megan Healy & Jenny Sparks
Runners-up: Stephanie Lacey & Victoria McEwen
Mixed Doubles
Winners: Tricia Will & Rosstan Mazey
Runners-up: Sally Marett & Warren Fraser
Mixed Doubles Consolation
Winners: Cheryl & Rodney Moon
Runners-up: Elena & Allister Ford