Holiday/ITF Tournament Grade 2
Organiser: David Tomlinson
Reporter: Ray Jones

This being my fifth visit in six years to the Hotel Mare e Pineta in Cervia suggests that I must quite like the place. Often the main enjoyment of a holiday is the sheer fact that everything is new and needs to be investigated but, despite the familiarity of the surroundings this proved to be possibly my most enjoyable stay here.

It all started out in the same way with the gathering, for most of us anyway, at Stansted Airport. There’s something reassuring and exciting about meeting up with all the ‘old faces’ plus a few new ones as you wander round the terminal and that holiday feeling starts to kick in. Soon we are all scrambling for our competitively priced Easyjet seats and in no time at all we are touching down, uneventfully thank goodness, on Italian soil. This year we’ve arrived in Rimini, apparently our normal port of call in Bologna is in the process of resurfacing the runway, a blessing in disguise.
Rimini is a much smaller airport, positioned close to the town. On disembarking we are obliged to board an airport bus to take us the 25 yards to the terminal – just in case we are mown down by a passing aircraft or maybe the distance just looked beyond us. Our coach, definitely an upmarket version from previous years, awaits us for the much shorter than usual journey to our hotel, or should I say hotels, as a number of our party have opted for alternatives in the surrounding area.

Having settled in to our surroundings, the next morning (Sunday) a trip to the local club courts gives us all a chance to get to know the ‘new faces’ and revisit our skills on the red clay courts.

The tournament itself is an ITF Grade 2 event and, therefore, of a very good standard, which generally means that few of our group, about 35 in number this year, have any great aspirations of getting to the finals. Personally I’m pleased to get through a round of singles, which I managed for only the second time this year – that’s two in a row, so maybe I am improving.

That said, Felicity Thomas was highly fancied in the 60+ age group. In the first round Felicity met an experienced opponent, but after taking a closely fought first set and racing to 5-2 in the second (with her opponent looking a trifle lame) I wandered off to the beach café for some much needed refreshments, confident that victory was in the bag. News filtering through at a later stage that Felicity had lost was dumbfounding.
Jill Dyer did keep the home flag flying to reach the final of the Ladies 65+ Singles, where she lost to Maria Andolsato 6-3, 4-6, 5-7. Then Jill and Felicity teamed up for the final of the Ladies Doubles 60+ but went down 2-6, 6-2, 3-6 to Farinelli and Monami.

However, all was not lost for the Brits when, on the last day, an all British final took to the courts in the Mixed Doubles 120+. In almost a repeat of the same final 12 months before, Ian Johnson, this time partnered by Jill Dyer instead of Anne Williams, overcame David Tomlinson and Felicity Thomas, in a two set thriller, 6-4, 7-6.
With this being almost the last final played, when it came to the presentation of cups last year Ian and Anne were presented with cups for the men’s doubles, but decided that keeping them was the easiest option. This year Ian and Jill managed to get the right trophies.

Apart from the tennis the food and standards of the hotel were excellent, with the only disappointment being that the weather did not allows us to have breakfast on the terrace.

Our evenings, which can sometimes become a little predictable in the hotel, took on a new level of interest as we ventured out into the town. Particularly at weekends the downtown area is alive with the Italian youth set (18-30), so we fitted in well, all smartly dressed and apparently well-behaved, enjoying the local night life. This was a side of the town that you just would not know was there in the daytime.

Once again the organisation by our captain David Tomlinson was impeccable.