Grand Finale to 2009
The last official tournament of 2009 was played out at Queen's from Friday 18 to Tuesday 22 December despite some very challenging seasonal weather. Contestants and spectators took up to 7 hours to get home on Monday evening after a couple of inches of snow fell
This tournament is sandwiched between the end of the Public School's Singles and Christmas, and as both tournaments grow in size, scheduling becomes ever tighter. The closer we get to Christmas the harder it is to get a full gallery along to support the U21/24 Finals, but we still managed over 20 people as late as 9 o'clock on a cold Tuesday evening, with representation from Queen's, the T&RA Rackets Committee, Eton, parents, Mjolnirs. The Neptune-sponsored tournament was very well organised by Will Hopton with help from Aggie Hudson-Evans in the T&RA Office, and attracted a record 55 entries into the 4 cups. Participants can choose to enter up to 3 of the Cups, so Will's hat-trick represented the best possible outcome. As the score-lines show, he was in a league above the other players of this age group, some of whom displayed great talent but lacked the practise time or match experience that Will clocks up week in and week out, which has taken him towards the top of the world rankings.
Draws and full results are available online. In summary:
Under 21 Singles: Hopton bt Stevens 15/7, 15/1, 15/0
Under 21 Doubles: Hopton and Shiner bt Northeast and Jones 15/3, 15/3, 15/9
Under 24 Singles: Hopton bt Northeast 15/5, 15/3, 15/2
Under 24 Doubles: Bone and Bailey bt James and Northeast 15/6, 12/15, 15/6 and 15/6
Special thanks to Howard for staying so late to mark all 4 Finals, and to Barry Aitken who did marking duty earlier in the tournament when play was€occupying over 12 hours a day. Will has vowed to make the tournament even bigger next year
Season's greetings to one and all.