Mixed
Organiser: Enid Tomlinson
Reporter: Graham Rayner

It was a hot (very hot!) beautiful June day. The twittering of birds was interrupted only by the gentle hummm of traffic noise from the nearby road and the rhythmic pshhhhhht from a compressor behind the fence. Of course, there was the occasional (we’re being kind - it was frequent!) loud and usually desperate call of “YOURS” to be heard, mainly from the male variety of tennis player participating in the tournament.

The day, organised by Enid with her usual style and grace, proceeded without a hitch, interspersed with muffins, sandwiches and fruit and concluded with a meal at the local Toby Carvery. The only setback occurring to poor John Moody, who injured himself during the morning session and was replaced, by Roger Davis in the afternoon session, after a couple of phone calls from the resourceful Enid.

Before the start of the day there were 3 substitutes, Geoff Lucken for Roy Rogers, who played with Frances Payne, Kris Newbery for Glynis Lambert, who played with Jeff Willis, and Ray Jones for Richard Wood, who played with Ged Youlden. Despite none of the pairs having played together previously all won their respective groups in the morning.

The Richmond system was used and in the morning groups there were some very close games, and one group only had two games separating the 1st and 3rd placed pairs. In the afternoon groups there were again some very close games.

The tournament was won by Ray Jones and Ged Youlden (just!) all four pairs in the afternoon 1st group finishing within 2 games of each other. The other winners were Penny Wyatt and Alan Warman, Sandy Philp and Harry Mills and Merete Collins and Roger Davis in the 2nd, 3rd & 4th groups respectively.

The day was a scorcher (with the exception of the post tournament showers - which were icy – and didn’t the men make a fuss!), enjoyed by all and our thanks to Buckhurst Hill Tennis Club for hosting it, Enid for organising it and the last minute substitutes for making up the numbers!