Tom’s Tearaways Take Captains Cup 2023

Our second Captains Cup was held on November 16^th with four teams of six competing for the prestigious trophy.  We expected a night of high-quality tennis and some exciting matches, and we weren’t disappointed!

Each match comprised five rubbers (three doubles and two singles) so a team needed to win three rubbers to take the match. Each rubber consisted of a tie break set and captains had to juggle their team selections to give them the best chance of achieving their three wins. Head Coach Nick came up with four team names and started proceedings for the evening. The four teams were:

Tom’s Tearaways – Tom Corbett, Sophie Cable, Adrian Phillips, Claire Grant, Harry Nicklin and Nicola Wilson-Fowler.

Adrian’s Superchargers– Adrian Smart, Emma Tatum-Hume, Alex Jafarifar, Sophie Zillman, Masood Ali, and Gary Armstrong.

Mas’s Marauders – Mas Ciampi, Claire Raddan, Ed Chamberlayne, Amanda Greenland, Nick Murthwaite and Sue Middlemas

Andy’s Attackers – Andy Hayward (of 24-hour tennis fame), Jolanta Hawryluk, Nick Sleap, Rebecca Garrard, Mark McCulloch and Glenn Rudd.

The semi-finals were both tense affairs with each match going to the singles rubbers to decide them, with the scores at 2-1. Tom’s Tearaways managed to sneak the last ladies’ singles rubber 6-3 to advance with Andy’s Attackers winning both singles to move into the final to face them.

Adrian’s Superchargers and Mas’s Marauders played the 3^rd / 4^th place play-off which the Superchargers took 2-1.

Now to the final! The Tearaways were 2-1 up after the doubles but Jolanta showed her steel to even up the match at 2-2. Which left us to see which Captain would prevail in the singles match between Tom and Andy! Andy broke early but was broken straight back and this proved crucial as Tom moved ahead and broke again to take the set 6-3 and, with it, the Captains Cup.

Well played to Tom’s Tearaways! 

Thank you for everyone who took part in a great night of tennis.  Different tempo for our next tournament, our fun social Christmas jumper tennis tournament which takes place at our Christmas celebration on Friday 8^th December.  This will be a fun doubles tournament for players of social playing ability and above.  Entry is free and the sign-up sheet is on the tennis board in the squash corridor.  We start at 7pm, but please do join us beforehand for carols around the tree and complementary mince pies and mulled wine from 6pm.