Noel Bruce 2009
At the end of the first week of the competitive rackets season Alex Titchener-Barrett and Charlie Danby played as consistently as they could to overcome their tired-looking opponents in a runaway victory of 4 games to 0. Although both of the winning players had their 'on form' and 'off-form' moments, they combined them into a performance which denied Coyne and Cockroft a chance, and in both of the last two games the Wellington pair went down from early leads.
The players and the packed gallery had to contend with another bout of technical hitches with the new lighting system, which for the second time this week in the middle of a rally saw the court lights go out without warning. If you think that driving a Formula One car is 'too safe these days', or changing spinakers on a yacht in a storm at night is 'not worth getting out of bed for', playing rackets in the dark is the sport for you! The new system is designed to combine high quality light with energy efficiency, switching the power off if it doesn't detect movement on court for 5 minutes. Afterwards in the bar, Charlie Danby nobly volunteered that at one point in the match he may have been momentarily resting, but not that long Charlie! Queen's Club have done a lot to maintain and upgrade both rackets courts this summer, and have reassured us that this 'light sensor' glitch on the Championship Court will be sorted out as a matter of high priority.
The prizes were presented by Jamie Bruce, grandson of Clarence Bruce who donated the Noel Bruce Cup along with E B Noel of Queen's Club. Tim Edwards kindly came along to take pictures, which will be posted when they become available.