Finals's Day Match Reports

Men's Singles Final

This is the fourth year in a row that Mark Stapleton and Cedric de la Chaise have contested the final.  In the 2003 encounter Mark got the better of Cedric in the semi-final but he has never beaten him an a final.  So there is an established history to this encounter.

In the first set the first 3 games went with serve, but Mark was broken early in the set due to a couple of excellent topspin lobs which left Mark stranded at the net after approach shots which left Cedric too much time. At 3-2 up Cedric wobbled a bit at the start of his service game but rescued it from 0-30 down.  The next two games went with serve, but when Mark served at 3-5 down Cedric got to 30 all and Mark double faulted to give Cedric a break point.  Mark served and came in, but Cedric found a superb pass to take the set first 6-3.

In the second set Mark kept coming in behind approach shots down the middle, but Cedric always had enough time to execute yet another perfect topspin lob. Mark played conservatively, always allowing the lines a wide margin and
not always putting full pace on the volleys.  Together with his strong serve, this tactic would easily beat every other player in the club, but Cedric is ultra-fit and very fast and was equal to sprinting after each distant ball, usually putting it away to win the point with the aid of the angles Mark had given him.  

Early in the second set Mark was broken, but at 3-1 up Cedric was 0-30 after 2 double faults and Mark put an unreachable volley on the line furthest from Cedric to achieve 3 break points.  Mark returned well on the next point and Cedric could only put the ball into the net as Mark came in and the set got back on serve.  In the next game Mark held to 3-3 with some better serving and Cedric held for a 4-3 advantage.  In the next game Mark dumped a volley into the net at 30-15 up, tried to topspin a low bouncing ball and hit it into the net and then double faulted leave Cedric serving for the match at 5-3, at which point Cedric closed it out for a 6-3 6-3 victory.

In summary one can only repeat the conclusion from last year's final.  Cedric played very well throughout, reached some marvellous gets in the match, and generally made few errors.  Mark is an excellent player with plenty of good ammunition, but the margins are so fine that if he wants to beat Cedric next year he needs to be more positive in his volleying, moving forward to cut the ball off and place it out of Cedric's reach, rather than relying on accurately placed but slower paced volleys and groundstrokes to force errors from Cedric on the run, an opponent who is not only super fit but also can hit a winner off a difficult half volley if he has to.  

Ladies' Singles Final

This year's ladies final was a very close affair.  My prediction was that Christine Thompson would steal it this year, but that Malika Sood (who is not yet a teenager, I believe) would beat her in 2008.  

In the first set Malika and Christine swapped breaks en route to the tie break.  However, at the start of the breaker Christine made a couple of unforced errors, including hitting long, to give Malika 3-0.  Malika then got to 5-1 and 6-3 but then started making errors which allowed Christine to even it up at 7-7, but Malika then got the mini-break and closed it out on her serve for 7-6^9-7.

In the second set Malika was broken and Christine got to 5-3 with a chance on serve to even up the match.  But Malika stepped it up to break for 4-5 and hold.  Christine held for a 6-5 lead.  The next game was a cracking game with both upping the pace and trying to hit winners, but Malika just held to force the second tie breaker.

Early in the second set tie break Malika hit a deep shot which took a kick from a bad bounce to force an error and a mini-break from Christine. Her response was to hit a super cross court winner to even it up again at 2-2.  Then the points went with serve until 4-4 when Malika's pacy return forced Christine to hit long, allowing Malika to reach 6-5 and match point on her own serve.  But on this serve Christine hit a short return which left Malika stranded at the back to even it up again.  At 6-6 Malika hit a super cross backhand winner on Christine's serve and closed it out on her serve on the next point for a 7-6^9-7 7-6^8-6 victory.

Congratulations to Malika on winning a fine competitive match in which neither player was afraid to go for it.  This was certainly the best Ladies Singles Final match that I have seen and we look forward to a repeat next year, although one suspects that Malika will be out of reach by then.

Malika is almost certainly the youngest player ever to win the singles (mens or ladies), though records are somewhat sparse on this point.  There is thus a danger that she will ultimately threaten Jane Boyle's record of nine singles wins, if she doesn't get too bored first.

Men's Doubles Final

This years Mens Doubles final was contested by Cedric de la Chaise partnering Jeff Fine (last year's champions) against Mark Stapleton and Sultan Gangji (who reckoned they should have won it last year).  

Sultan and Mark kicked off by breaking Jeff twice in the first 5 games, with little that Cedric could do to rectify the balance.  Matters then went with serve so that Sultan came to serve for the set at 5-2 up.  At this point Sultan contrived to go 15-40 down, but won the next 4 points to take the first set 6-2.

In the second set there was a bit of a shock when Jeff held but Cedric was broken, allowing Sultan to serve at 4-3.  Sultan and Mark lost the first three points of this game to go 0-40 down, but then pulled one back, but neither could reach Cedric's wide volley on the next point as he evened it up at 4-4.  But Jeff was then broken leaving Mark serving at 5-4 for the match.

The first two points went with Mark's hefty serve, but Jeff pulled one back with a fearless smash for 30-15, but the next serve to Cedric kept low and he could do nothing with it as Mark and Sultan took the next two points to win 6-2 6-4 to give a combined total of 17 victories for Sultan or Mark since Sultan won his first doubles title in 1977.

Ladies Doubles Final

The first set was a convincing 6-2 win for Christine Thompson and Malika Sood (who had just played against each other to contest the Singles Final), playing against Ros Norkett and Sue Ehr.  However, in the second set Ros fought like a tiger, but to no avail as a late break settled matters to allow Malika and Christine to win 6-2 7-5.  

Mixed Doubles Final

Unfortunately, due to the rain, it was not possible to play the Mixed Final on the Thursday of the final week.   Last year's winners, Cedric de la Chaise and Jane Boyle had been summarily despatched by Christine Thompson and Darren Kaye, who now took on Mark and Ludmilla Stapleton.  The first set went to a tie break which everyone confidently expected Darren and Christine to win from 6-1 up, but Mark and Milly held their nerve and created 3 mini-breaks to recover to 6-6 and go on to win the set.

The second set was settled without a tie break by Milly losing her serve while Darren held his for a 6-4 victory.

The third set was similarly won on a single break to give Darren and Christine a 6-7 6-4 6-3 victory.

It was great to see the Mens titles split between four different players this year, though Cedric de la Chaise was a worthy victor ludorum last year.  Although Christine Thompson and Malika Sood shared all the Ladies honours, at least it was a 2-2 split between them.

Tournament Reports and Gossip Postscript - Wednesday 1 August - Thank you for your support of the web site over the last 3 weeks.  The web site counter registered over 700 hits in total, which is an average of around 40 per day for the duration of the tournament. Click here to see the hits by day.  Click here to see the hits by web page.  And finally if you want more information on the web site use than you ever dreamed was available click here. Finals Day - Saturday 28 July - We were lucky with the weather just when we needed it and a record crowd (recorded for posterity above) came to watch the event.  See the reports on each final above. As usual there was a superb Final's Day tea organised mainly by Elena Valarche and the ladies. - The evening BBQ was also very well attended, but the weather could not restrain itself by this point and it did rain, but that did not stop the determined revels. Now it is all over, it only remains to thank all those involved in a tremendous effort over the last fortnight, particularly the chefs for the gourmet dinners and the tournament referees, Sultan Gangji and Marjan Deniswho had the impossible job of getting the tournament to run on schedule while half of England was under water because of the heavy rain. Friday 27 July - Fortunately the weather was relatively kind for once, enabling the remaining semi-final matches to be played on grass in front of a largish crowd of spectators. - In the Ladies Singles semis Ros Norkett held her own for most of the first set against Malika Sood to get to 5-5, but ended up being broken in the final two games, allowing Malika to win it 7-5.  Malika then proceded to run away with the second set to win 7-5 6-2. - In the other Ladies Singles semi-final Christine Thompson had no problem against Marjan Denis in the first set, winning it 6-1.  Marjan stepped up her game in the second set, but Christine was still able to get the upper hand to win the match 6-1 6-3. - In the first Mixed semi-final, Sultan Gangji and Jenni Davis took on the number two seeds, Mark and Ludmilla Stapleton.  The Stapletons won both sets 6-3.  Final result 6-3 6-3. - In the second Mixed semi-final we were expecting the first seeds Cedric de la Chaise and Jane Boyle to beat Darren Kaye and Christine Thompson by a comfortable margin.  However, real life is not necessarily like that.  Darren in particular was playing excellently and he and Christine won the first set 6-1.  It is fair to say that Cedric and Jane were not at their best at the point.  Somewhat stirred by this set back, Cedric stepped up his game in the second set, but it did not make much difference as Darren and Christine went on to win 6-1 6-3. - In recent years Sultan Gangji has been expounding his theory that he has won enough Singles titles in the past, and now it is time to let others take their turn.  So when Sultan went on to play Cedric de la Chaise the result was fairly predictable, especially after Cedric was given the added spur of seeing his hopes of a triple crown disappear in the previous match,  Although Sultan got the odd game, Cedric won the match 6-1 6-3. - Most of us treat the tournament as a bit of fund, win or lose.  However, with Ros Norkett and Sue Ehr poised at 3-3 in the final set on the resumption of the unfinished match against Philippa Glynn and Elena Valarche, you could have anticipated that the battle of determination between Ros and Elena was going to be a fierce one.  The first 6 games split evenly, bringing us to the final set tie break.  Not only that, but they took as long to play fewer than these 6 games as the whole of the first set on the adjacent court.  When it comes to the tie break, how can one get an edge?  Well, normally there is little one can do, but it just so happened that Ros and Sue had been given some Doubles coaching by Oran Hecht, the club coach, earlier on in the week.   Of course this had nothing to do with the unfinished club tournament match, but was to help ensure that the Ladies' first team promotion was as leaders and not as runner up.  Anyway, in the tie break this additional edge seemed to do the trick as Ros and Sue took it 7-2 for a 7-6 4-6 7-67-2 victory. - Don't forget to come early to get your seat for Finals Day tomorrow. Thursday 26 July - Brian Coffey and his wife Lillian provided the super chicken meal for this evening. - There were only two match played today, and due to the wet and miserable weather these were both on shale. - Mark Stapleton beat Darren Kaye 6-4 6-1 - Christine Thompson and Darren Kaye finished their match with Marjan Denis and Paul O'Flynn.  Christine and Darren won 6-2 6-1. - As a result there will be six semi-final matches played tomorrow (Friday) night.  See the Order of Play above. - I have some pictures to put up from tonight - probably on Saturday morning.   Wednesday 25 July - The food this evening was provided by Sandip and Swati Sen. By all accounts it was excellent, but I am afraid I missed it. - Despite the rain 4 matches were completed and one started. - Christine Thompson beat Philippa Glynn 6-0 6-4 - Tony Careswell beat Alex Raybould - Mark Stapleton beat Tony Careswell - Sultand Gangji and Jenni davis beat Paul Miller and Philippa Glynn - Christine Thompson and Darren Kaye and Paul O'Flynn and Marjan Denis were 2-2 when they had to come off. Tuesday 24 July - A glorious sunny day (if a little cool in the evening), and a full set of matches.  This time the menu was North African and the exciting and unusual meal was prepared by chefs Ros Norkett and Marjan Denis.  The food seemed to go in record quick time, particularly the plum pudding. - The evening's entertainment was kicked off by a mens Singles with Cedric de la Chaise, the number one seed, who was being challenged by Oliver Brock.  Oliver won the first game, but perhaps to some people's surprise Cedric then took the next 12 for a devastating 6-1 6-0 victory.  Clearly Cedric is slowly warming up for the big three events on Saturday. - Sultan Gangji and Simon Nelson had a rather closer match, but Sultan got the better of Simon in two sets for a 6-2 6-3 victory. - In the Men's Doubles Darren Kaye and Joris Fletcher took on the number one seeds Cedric de la Chaise and Jeff Fine.  Darren and Joris had the upper hand in the first set, which they won 6-4.  They were down a break in the second, but pulled it back, and really were on top at that point, and should have been able to put the seeds away.  But their form fell off, while Cedric and Jeff maintained the pressure and broke to secure the second set 6-4.  In the final set Darren and Joris had plenty of opportunity to hit winners form a strong position in the point and to regain momentum, but could only take occasional advantage of this, allowing the seeds to dominate.  Cedric and Jeff took full advantage and closed out the match for a 4-6 6-4 6-1 victory. - In the Ladies Doubles, Christine Thompson and Malika Sood, the number one seeds, took on Marjan Denis and Moira Duncan.  As expected, it was the seeds who gained the upper hand, though the challengers put up a good fight.  Christine and Malika won 6-2 6-3. - In the final match of the evening, Ros Norkett and Sue Ehr took on Philippa Glynn and Elena Valarche who had already vanquished the number two seeds (Ludmilla Stapleton and Jane Boyle).  The match started on court 3.  The first set was a close fought affair, culminating in a tie break won 7-67-5 by Ros and Sue.  In the second Philippa and Elena were a break up and leading 5-4 with Elena serving for the set.  In this game Ros and Sue put up a spirited defence, leading 15-40, but Elena and Philippa dug in to to get back to deuce and took the game and the second set 6-4.  At this point there was some discussion about the light, but a (rather tipsy) official moved in and insisted on a continuation on centre court (court 2).  This was a close series of games, but was abandonned at 3-3 due to poor light and the fact that everyone was hungry and Ros was one of the chefs.  The match is supposed to be finished tomorrow (Wednesday), but as Elena has a clinic then my guess is that the sexual health of the local inhabitants will come before a resolution of this tennis match.  Interestingly Philippa is now one of the few unseeded players who is still in all three events!!   - As a side-line, since Cedric de al Chaise was on court for two matches, in the second one of which he was playing Darren Kaye, then Darren Kaye and Ed Nightingale could not play their quarter final match.  Unfortunately Ed is going on Safari to Melindi, Kenya on Thursday for 5 weeks, so a reschedule is unlikely, and Darren was given a walk over into the semi finals where he next faces Tony Careswell, Alex Raybould or (more likely) Mark Stapleton. Monday 23 July - Another wash out with no matches played.  But a determined crowd of Gourmet Diners were treated to a sumptious meal by Rose and Vince Sudbery.  Mozarella, avocado and tomatoes for starter were closely followed by roast lamb as a main course and a variety of sweets.  Our thanks go particularly to Rosie, the main chef, but she asked particularly that Vince should be mentioned for his support (although that was before he put some rare lamb back in the oven, forgot about it, then found it to be charred when he finally was reminded).  In addition Rosie particularly thanked Margaux Valarche for helping lay out everything, including cutlery and crockery. - As a result, the tennis programme for the rest of the Gourmet Dinners will be all the more extensive and entertaining. Sunday 22 July - Today was a super day.  Showers were forecast for around 15:00 but never arrived, so I counted 11 matches that got played today! - Do not forget the gourmet dinners.  See the menu for tomorrow.  The lists are full for some days but you could always give Sultan a ring to see whether he can ask to squeeze you in. - Also, do not forget that the SAB Miller drinks sponsorship starts tomorrow (Monday).  Please help yourself to one free SAB Miller beer per day that you attend the tournament.  We have a variety of SAB Miller beers on offer, so you are bound to find one to suit you. - As there were so many matches played, not all have the usual match reports. - In the Men's Singles Darren Kaye and James Angus finished off their match which was abandoned on Saturday when the rain came down, with James leading 3-2 in the final set.  On the resumption James had the faster start, and soon reached 2 match points on Darren's serve at 2-5 15-40.  Darren pulled himself together and put in two solid serve and volley points to save the match points and recover to deuce, and then went on to serve the game out, leaving James to serve for the match.  At this point it is worth digressing a little.   When they played on Saturday, both Darren and James had hangovers, but Saturday was also James' birthday (a belated Many Happy Returns, James), so James had a hangover today but Darren did not.  Anyway, James was not at his best when serving 5-3 up for the match, and the hangover might have had something to do with it.  Suffice it to say that Darren broke James, held, and then went on to win the next two games, rather to the surprise of both players, for an unexpected 6-1 3-6 7-5 victory. - Alex Raybould, as expected, beat Brian Coffey 7-5 6-2. - Mark Stapleton, again as expected, beat Bryan Shiffman 6-1 6-4. - In the Ladies' Singles Marjan Denis and Elena Valarche had a very good match with some lovely long rallies and great quality tennis from both players.  In the end Marjan's passing shots were too accurate for Elena's net rushing, and Elena found herself outplayed with Marjan winning 6-3 6-4. - It seems that Jenni Davis is not used to grass court tennis, and has taken a while to become familiar with the vagiaries of the West Heath grass court bounce.  However, she seemed to be up to speed with the grass in her match against Malika Sood.  It was another nice match with some good rallies. Malika took the first set 6-1, but Jenni came into her own in the second, and found herself serving 5-4 up to even things up.  But at this point Malika's quality of shot once again told, and Jenni lost the next 3 games for Malika to win 6-1 7-5. - Darren Kaye and Joris Fletcher took on the ambidextrous Raybould father and son pair of Martin and Alex.  Alex appeared to be the major threat with his formidable groundstrokes, but apparently the game plan was to chip with low shots to deny him the pace and height of ball to prevent him using his super groundstrokes.  This plan appeared to have worked as Darren and Joris won the match 6-2 6-3. - Simon Nelson and Brian Coffey beat another father and son pair, Walter and Philip Reid 6-3 6-4, which must have somewhat offset Brian's disappointment at losing to another youngster (Alex Raybould) in the singles today. - The match of the day must have been the Ladies' Doubles match between the number 2 seeds, Ludmilla Stapleton and Jane Boyle, and the improving pair of Elean Valarche and Philippa Glynn.  The seeds had no problem in the first set, taking it 6-3.  However, things did not go quite so well in the second.  To quote one of the seeds, the ball seemed to stick like glue to Elena's racquet, and I have been telling you for the last week how much improved Philippa is.  Anyway, the seeds lost the second set 3-6.  The final set was a very close fought affair which eventually went to a tie break.  Here the seeds were struggling from the start, but defended well as the points started going towards Philippa and Elena.  However, the last point went to the challengers who dumped out the seeds 3-6 6-3 7-67-1.  This was clearly the shock of the day, and both Philippa and Elena were cock-a-hoop at the unexpected victory. - In the Mixed, the numer one seeds, Cedric de la Chaise and Jane Boyle, continued on their march to the final with a 6-1 6-2 victory (or could have been 6-0 6-2) over Simon Nelson and Sally Tornow.  Jane and Cedric played beautifully throughout but Simon's serve was not quite as effective as normal, and his first service game was a vey long affair resulting in a break with no subsequent recovery. In the second set the challengers held Sally's serve and broke Jane, but with the complete loss of Simon's serve the writing was always on the wall. - Sultan Gangji and Jenni Davis beat Vince Sudbery and Clare McNamara 6-0 6-1, going with the form book. - In the final match of the day the dwindling crowd were treated to the number 2 seeds, Mark and Ludmilla Stapleton against a father and daughter pair this time - Vivek and Malika Sood.  Vivek was nursing a bad arm, and the first set went entirely to the the seeds 6-0, though with the occasional fine point from Vivec and Malika there were signs that the match might burst into life.  Indeed this was precisely what happened in the second set, with the challengers taking the first two games, only to be pegged back to 2-2.  However, Malika was not to be denied and managed to chivvy up dad sufficiently to take the next two games, but Mark and Milly fought back once more to get the 4-4 and then break through to lead 5-4. However, on the next game, though Mark and Milly held one match point, the Soods evened it up for 5-5, but could not withstand the pressure in the next two games and let the Stapletons break for a 6-0 7-5 victory.  Ludmilla played steadily throughout and could be relied on to return anything that came within her reach and was not at her feet.  Vivek hit some good groundstrokes but also let fly a few times to hit the fence, when sometimes more finesse would have been called for.  The battle between Mark and Malika was a fascinating one.  With Malika on the backhand, Mark served and came in, but Malika seemed to be trying a topspin lob over Milly's head (at the net).  The first went out, but a couple more succeeded.  Mark swears they were mishits, but they did not look like it to me.  Perhaps Malika would care to comment.  With Malika receiving on the forhand in the second set Mark beat heer a few times with a wide slice serve, to which Malika could get nowhere near.  There were various other little battles.  Suffice it to say that Mark was relieved that Tim Allen, Malika's original partner, had been injured, and that the rather more inconsistent and clearly injured dad had had to take his place.  But I guarantee Mark will not find this particular fixture quite so easy next year. Saturday 21 July - Bit of a wash out today.  But even so, four matches got completed. Perhaps surprisingly, Cedric de la Chaise and Simon Nelson both managed to play two matches each! - Cedric de la Chaise, the number one seed, continued his march towards the final by beating Martin Raybould 6-1 6-1. and he and Jane Boyle beat Jeff Fine and Carol Jardine 6-3 7-6 - a particularly tight second set (normally these things seem to go the other way round against the top seeds with a more closely fought first set and a second set where the seed gets thoroughly on top). - Simon Nelson beat Paul O'Flynn 6-4 6-1, and then he and and Sally Tornow went on to beat Charles Rubinstein and Veronique Deloye 6-1 6-1. - I've added some pictures to the older news items on the site (playing catch-up). - In case you haven't seen it the forecast for tomorrow (Sunday) is looking much better, so see you down there for a full day of tennis, one hopes. Thursday 19 July - This evening a smaller but enthusiastic crowd was disappointed at the scheduling of only 3 matches for their entertainment.   - Having beaten David Stewart very convincingly in the first round, Philip Reid was ready to take on Sultan Gangji in the second.  Win or lose, Philip seems very laid back (as befits a family with such recent Royal connections), but Sultan must have been a little worried about the forthcoming encounter as he was paying a lot of attention when I played a friendly set with Philip on the Wednesday evening.  During the match Philip hit some good serves and excellent forehands, and his movement across the court was superb and few of Sultan's tricky little drop shots were out of reach.  But Sultan, who is not as mobile nowadays, managed to find a point of weakness on Philip's backhand, and proceeded to exploit that for the duration of the match.  This game plan must have worked because Sultan took the first set 6-4 and then wrapped up the match 6-4 6-2.  The lesson for Philip must be that he has to concentrate on improving his backhand in time for next year's tournament if he wants to progress further in the Singles, but that if he succeeds then he will become a formidable competitor.   - Father and Daughter team Vivec and Malika Sood took on Paul Rubie and Sue Latimer.  Everyone played very well, and Sue was full of praise for Paul's play (see Sunday's reports of the previous round), though Paul himself felt he could have come up closer to the net more as, towards the end, he noticed he tended to win more points from that position.  The Soods had a small edge derived mainly from Malika's quality of shot and not hitting to Sue's formidable forehand, and it gave them a single break in the first set to take it 6-3.  In the second there were more breaks traded, as Sue and Paul were broken twice and the Soods once, but this was enough to give the Soods the set for a 6-3 6-4 victory. - I had thought that everyone who worked in banking and finance had to be able to count, but Brian Coffey managed to lose count of the score in his mixed doubles, both at the end of the second set played on a previous night, and at the end of the final set played this evening.  Or perhaps the success of his concert (he plays the 'cello you know) a couple of weekends ago has gone to his head.  He was playing with Ros Norkett against Paul Miller and Philippa Glynn. The first set had been a tight battle won 7-6 by Brian and Ros but Paul and Philippa had fought back to win the second 6-4.  The final set was played this evening, and it was noticeable how much better Philippa is playing than a couple of years ago. Her tennis is flowing and one particular serve and volley was flawlessly executed.  By contrast her partner Paul seemed to be struggling a little on his serve.  After a few closely fought games Philippa appeared to be stung by a wasp or bee, which created a small break, but she and Paul closed out the third set shortly afterwards.  However, Brian had still only counted to five games, and the sequence of serves and ends in the last set had to be explained to him before he realised it was all over and they had lost 6-7 6-4 6-3. - The tournament referees have granted a walkover to James Angus in his first round tie with Andrew Brodie.  Andrew and James had only got as far as the knock-up on Sunday when it started raining and they had not managed to reschedule. - Jeff Hiday has been working in Manilla and, as a result, has not been seen recently, but Huw Crompton brought him along for a friendly singles and a chat to everyone.  Jeff is occupying a six (or was it eight) bedroom mansion in Manilla with a staff of 6 (though only 3 of these are full time). - Regrettably there do not seem to be any matches scheduled for tomorrow (Friday) night, so we will all have to find something else to do until Saturday!  Hopefully I will have time to cach up with loading more pictures onto the web site. Wednesday 18 July - Great news!!!.  SAB Miller has agreed to sponsor the Club Tournament again this year. Click here for details (or see above). - Oliver Brock and Jeff Fine had a fine old battle on centre court.  Jeff took the first set 6-2, but Oliver came back in the second to take it 6-3. The third set was a bit tentative as neither player wanted to lose the point on an error, but Oliver managed to break Jeff and hold on for 5-2 before closing it out to win 2-6 6-3 6-2. - Sultan Gangji had a bit of a shock in his match against Michael Goldman.  After taking the first set with ease 6-1, Sultan was pegged back in the second as Michael won it 6-2.  Apart from the shock to Sultan there was also a shock for the crowd.  For the first tiem in living memory Sultan was sporting a pair of sunglasses on court, presumably in an attempt to intimidate his opponent.  In the third set Sultan managed to break and hold, and had about a dozen match points on Michael's serve, but Michael held on and Sultan had to wait until his own service game at 5-2.  Michael had a few break back points on this game, but Sultan managed to hold on and gain a match point, which he proceeded to lose, but made no mistake the second time as Michael put a ball wide.  Sultan won 6-1 2-6 6-3. - Sally Tornow and Ros Norkett had a good game on court 3.  The first set was very closely fought, with Sally playing some good tennis, but Ros just managed to squeeze victory in the tie break.  The second set was also very competitive, but Ros managed to win it wihtout a tie break this time, taking it 6-3 for a winning score of 7-6 6-3. - Laurant Deckers and Tony Careswell were 1-0 up against Sion Nelson and Brian Coffey when Laurant fell and seemed to get cramp.  Though he was able to put his weight on his leg he seemed unable to play and had to retire, laeaving Simon and Brian through as 0-1 retired. - Though Gillian Green always plays like a trooper in her doubles matches, she and Sally Tornow could make no impression on Christine Thompson and Mallika Sood, the number one seeds.  In the end the winning margin was 6-0 6-2. - Julia Abbot has been playing very well this Tournament, and I have spotted her in the Cumberland gym this season at the circuit training there.  Oliver Brock has been the surprise of the tournament so far, despatching both a number 5 seed and Jeff Fine.  You would expect the two playing together would put up a good showing, even against the number 2 seeds Mark and Ludmilla Stapleton.  It was a good match, watched by an enthusiastic and well-oiled crowd, but the real difference was the level of experience and partnership understanding of the husband and wife pair which gave them victory 6-1 6-4. - Guess who invited Walter Reid to tea today.  If your eyesight is very good you will be able to tell from the invite.  His company, Avon Metals has excelled in exporting aluminium.  But he tendered his apologies and had to leave early to come and watch the West heath Tournament matches this evening. Tuesday 17 July - There were 6 matches played today - Bryan Shiffman and Dudley Leigh thought they could avoid a match report by playing at 7 am.  A tight match must have ensued which Bryan won 6-4 7-6. - Cedric de la Chaise, the champion and number one seed (in everything) warmed up with a Singles victory over Laurant Deckers, 6-0 6-1. - Cedric and Jeff Fine then took on Paul Miller and Maciek Janowski, who played some fine rallies but could not hold their own on the majority of points, losing 6-1 6-2. - Huw Crompton and Mark Webb took on Vivek and Nikhil Sood.  The concensus was that Nikhil played more consistently than Vivek with some good serves and ground strokes, but was always struggling at the net, while Vivec hits the ball very hard, but is very inconsistent.  The result was that the Soods won the knock-up, but could make no impression in the match, losing 6-1 6-1.  Huw reckons his hard and fast first serve helped, but more of that later. - Huw and Mark then went on to play their main event of the evening against the number 2 seeds Mark Stapleton and Sultan Gangji.  Huw and Mark played some fine points, but it was not enough to counter the power and consistency of the seeds.   Huw got his first serve in virtually all the time but did not win a service game, losing 6-0 6-2.  In the postmortem afterwards the concensus was that he always signalled where he was going to serve, and tended to go wide on the deuce court with his first serve, but down the middle with his second serve.  Ideally you should be able to vary the service direction from one corner to another by using a wrist snap with otherwise identical service action which cannot be read by the receiver, but Huw reckons his training as a cricketer has ruined this possibility for him.  The net result is that Sultan and Mark are very used to receiving accurate hard serves such as Huw's with no problem, but obviously struggle with a surprise in the service direction.  Knowing Huw he will come back with an unreadable service action next year. - Moira Duncan and Bryan Shiffman played Julia Abbott and Oliver Brock.  Oliver has already put out one number 5 seed in the Singles, and Julia is capable of very consistent play.  Nevertheless the first set was fiercely contested, but won by Julian and Oliver 7-6.  The second was over much more quickly as both Moira and Bryan lost their serves to lose 7-6 6-2. - Bryan Shiffman then partnered with Jonathan Bell to take on Martin and Alex Raybould, but Bryan had no more luck this time either, as he and Jonathan lost 6-4 6-2 to the more ambidextrous pair. - To cap an unfortunate evening Bryan lost his Blackberry at the club, so if you find one it belongs to him.  Still, at least he beat Dudley Leigh in the Singles!! Monday 16 July - - There were a couple of mixed doubles matches played this evening. - Arranging a time to play the first round mixed doubles fixture of Carol Jardine and Jeff Fine versus Susan Grossman and Michael Goldman was difficult.  Carol just managed to squeeze it in between a weekend in Majorca and a dinner party in Finchley.   Play was on the shale which due to an unseasonly dry day, resembled the beach at Margate.  The match got off to a fine start with all four players losing their service games.  Susan and Mike, somewhat surprisingly, held their own in the first set, and looked like they were in with a chance after an early lead.  Line calls were sometimes controversial not least of all because, Mike, an audiologist failed to hear them.  Play was occasionally disrupted by Charles on the next court, asking the players to check it they had any of his balls.  Jeff, diplomatic as ever, made a quick exit on his 650cc BMW, Mike cycled back to Finchley as his wife had the car, Carole threw a party dress over her tennis gear, and Susan strolled round the corner to her new flat.   Carole and Mike will meet Cedric and Jane in the next round on Friday, that is, if Carole can re-arrange her diary. - Veronique Deloye and Charles Rubinstein resumed their match with Radhika and Nikhil Sood at 1-1 in the second set, after winning the first set 6-2.  Veronique played the partnership on to 4-2 with some great strokes, looking very comfortable on the shale.  But some determined big hitting from Nikhil brought the score to 4-4; then after reaching 5-5, Charles and Veronique were relieved to scramble home 7-5.  Nikhil played very well and will doubtless be a force to be reckoned with very soon.  Radhika played some impressive shots, but was lacking in match practice.  Charles managed to keep hold of the four tennis balls he originally started with..... Sunday 15 July - Please remember to put your result and scores on the sheets in the club house after you have played your match. If yours is the last match, could you text or phone Peter Davies with the results on 020 8458 1627. Thanks. - Quite a few matches got played, mostly on grass - despite a couple of downpours, but one or two were postponed. Fortunately Susan Grossman provided a super tea which was ready well before 3 pm when the first downpour started, so everyone was able to partake while complaining about the weather. - Paul O'Flynn beat Jonathan Bell 6-4 6-1.  Paul was joking about playing his next round match immediately following on, but soon disappeared when the offer was swiftly accepted. - Michael Goldman beat Lea Silver in a convincing 6-2 6-2 display. - Tony Careswell, yet another of the four 5th seeds (of whom only two are still in the tournament) beat Walter Reid by an even more convincing 6-1 6-0. - Flavio Taffoni had to retire due to injury after losing the first game of the 3rd set to Ed Nighingale, giving Ed a 2-6 6-3 1-0 (retired) victory.  This was a shame as the score seemed pretty even and it must have been a close match. - In the penultimate match of the day, Paul Rubie and Sue Latimer played a very consistent game against Dudley Leigh and Jan Prower.  Has anyone else noticed how much more consistent Paul is now when compared with a few years ago? Jan was clearly taking the match very seriously as I spotted her practising serves on the shale courts before the match.  But it was to no avail and Paul and Sue won by a (consistent) 6-3 6-3 margin.. - Simon Nelson (yet another number 5 seed) and Peter Davies elected to play on shale after the second downpour and Peter took the first set 7-5, mainly by getting his passing shots right., while Simon tried to find his tactics and consistency.  Simon succeeded in the second, taking it 6-2.  In the third Simon broke Peter early to gain the upper hand, now seeming to have no problem with Peter's serves. Though he himself was broken a couple of times later on, by this time it was academic, and his early holds enabled him to take the match 4-7 6-4 6-3. - Moira Duncan and Philippa Glynn had a very enjoyable match, though one of the bystanders commented that Moira would have done better not to put the ball back to Philippa, who won the first set 6-4. There were a lot of interruptions in the second set, and towards the end Moira fell over and hurt her big toe , but this did not affect the outcome as Philippa won 6-4 6-2. - Social engagements having been satisfied the evening before, Elena Valarche lost no time in wrapping up the belated final set left over from the day before in her match against Julia Abbott, finally winning 4-6 6-2 6-0 in the end. - Joris Fletcher made amends for the two defeats (and broken racket) of the previous day playing doubles with Daren Kaye against James Angus and Oliver Brock. James and Daren took the match 6-3 6-1. - James Angus must have been thoroughly fed up playing against Darren Kaye today as he lost to him again in the mixed. This time James was playing with Elena Valarche, while Darren was partnered by Christine Thompson. Christine and Darren won 6-4 6-0. - The Gourmet dinners start in one week.  Here is a taster of what is to come. Saturday 14 July - This morning, one of the tournament referees, Marjan Denis, told me that 63 people in total entered for the tournament, which is a club record.  However, there has already been one casualty, Tim Allen, who has withdrawn injured. - I am also pleased to report also that this web site had 30 hits on Friday.  Better than going down to the club house just to look up the draw, I guess. Keep it up. - Plenty of matches played today.  Marie Woodthorpre and Jenny Davis proved too strong for Moira Duncan and Marjan Denis, though the latter took the second set then must have struggled in the third, losing 6-1 3-6 6-0.   - The youngest competitor in the tournament was Nikhil Sood, and he put up a good fight in his preliminary round match against Jonathan Bell, a new memeber.  However, he is not yet strong enough to compete with adults twice his size and lost 6-4 6-4.  But if he keeps up the current rate of improvement it will surely not be long before he is challenging for the semis and beyond. - Joris Fletcher, one of the numerous fifth seeds, was dumped out by Oliver Brock 6-2 6-1 (note to Sultan to try harder on the seeding next year).  So it sounds like Oliver is one of the names to watch in the Singles. - By contrast Peter Davies played Charles Rubinstein in a two set war of attrition that lasted 2 hours 15 mins.  They traded service breaks at the beginning but at 5-5 Peter broke and held for the first set.  The second set turned into a test of endurance, Charles made rather fewer errors and held 4 or 5 break points for the set at both 5-4 and 6-5, but Peter was a combination of solid and lucky on the ad points and levelled at 6-6 on his first game point, going on to win tie break 7-4 and the match 7-5 7-6.  Needless to say, both were shattered afterwards though Charles did say he was disappointed that his superior endurance was not tested in a third set.  However, the fearsome Simon Nelson now awaits. - But Huw Crompton was the real hero. He first beat Paul Rubie and followed this by losing with Sue Ehr to Paul O'Flynn and Marjan Denis 6-4 6-2, then went on to play singles against the number 2 seed Mark Stapleton.  There were shouts of exultation from Huw when he finally took a game off Mark, and some of the points I saw showed Huw playing an aggressive game and winning points regularly.  But Mark had admitted prior to the match that he was playing some of his best tennis ever, so he had some margin to spare and wrapped it up before Peter and Charles had finished their first set, despite starting around the same time. - Earlier, Sultan Gangji and Mark Stapleton earned their stripes as the number 2 doubles seeds by beating Ed and Richard Nightingale 6-2 6-3. - Vince Sudbery and Clare McNamara beat Joris and Julia Fletcher 6-3 4-6 6-3. - Elena Valarche and Julia Abbott had a tight first set which Julia took by dint of fewer unforced errors and some accurate passing shot placement.  Elena is not one to take defeat lying down and was 4-0 up in the second in the blink of an eye, but having won his, the decider had to be postponed until Sunday as social engagements obviously had to take priority. - The evening ended with a little detective work trying to track down the rightful owner of a Nokia mobile phone that had been left in the club but was inoperative as it seemed to have run out of money or something. A phone call to "Home" and a look at the members' list and it turned out to belng to Derek Council, our injured Treasurer, who had already cancelled the SIM card and bought another, so he now has 3 mobile phone to his name (don't really know what happened to get him the third).  It must be nice to have two spares. Friday 13 July - No matches played tonight.  Maybe all the Men's Singles preliminary round matches will be played tomorrow?. Thursday 12 July - Four matches were played tonight - not bad for the first day of the Tournament.  Charles Rubinstein and Vince Sudbery managed to lose from 6-2 2-0 up against Paul Miller and Maciek Janowski.  The Reids seemed to have no problem with Michael Goldman and Martin Shotness, taking the match 6-1 6-4. Martin Raybould beat Jason Maratos 6-1 6-1 and Jeff Fine beat Vince Sudbery 6-2 6-1. Tuesday 10 July - The 2007 West Heath Club Tournament draw is now on this web page.  The tournament will start on Thursday 12 July and first round matches must be completed by Sunday 15 July.  If you are in the men's singles annd are not seeded then check carefully to see if you have to play a Round 0 (preliminary round) match before the first weekend of the tournament.  Joint referees are Sultan Gangji or Marjan Denis, so please let them know if you have any questions or issues. The cost is £3 for one event, and £5 for 2 or 3 events.  Please pay Moira Duncan or Marjan Denis.  As always, semi finals will be played during our Gourmet Dinners week, from Monday 23 to Thursday 26 July.  Sign up for the Gourmet Dinners on the sheets in the clubhouse.  Finals day is Saturday 28 July. The tournament rules are in the clubhouse but can also be found here.  The aim is to publish results on the website each night along with the occasional match report! Sunday 29 April - The 2007 West Heath Club Tournament will be on us before we realise it - only 3 months to go now until Finals Day.

	Men's Open Singles Holder : Cedric de la Chaise Sponsored by SABMiller plc
Round (0) 1 (Sat 14) Sun 15 July	Round 2 Sat 21	Round 3 Tues 24	Semi-finals Thurs 26	Final Sat 28	Winner
Cedric de la Chaise(1)	Cedric de la Chaise 6-0 6-1	Cedric de la Chaise 6-1 6-1	Cedric de la Chaise 6-1 6-0	Cedric de la Chaise  6-1 6-2	Cedric de la Chaise  6-1 6-2
Laurent Deckers
Jason Maratos	Martin Raybould 6-1 6-1
Martin Raybould
Jeff Fine	Jeff Fine 6-2 6-1	Oliver Brock 2-6 6-3 6-2
Vince Sudbery
Oliver Brock	Oliver Brock 6-2 6-1
Joris Fletcher (5)
Sultan Gangji (3)	Sultan Gangji 6-1 2-6 6-3	Sultan Gangji 6-4 6-2	Sultan Gangji 6-2 6-3
Michael Goldman bt Leo Silver 6-2 6-2
Philip Reid	Philip Reid 6-3 6-0
David Stewart
Paul O'Flynn	Paul O'Flynn 6-4 6-1	Simon Nelson 6-4 6-1
Jonathan Bell bt Nikhil Sood 6-4 6-4
Peter Davies bt Charles Rubinstein 7-5 7-67-4	Simon Nelson 5-7 6-2 6-3
Simon Nelson (5)
Darren Kaye (5)	Darren Kaye 6-1 6-0	Darren Kaye  6-1 3-6 7-5	Darren Kaye w/o	Mark Stapleton 6-4 6-1
Martin Shotness
James Angus	James Angus w/o
Andrew Brodie
Paul Miller	Alex Labrom 6-7 6-3 7-5	Ed Nightingale 6-3 3-6 6-3
Alex Labrom
Flavio Taffoni	Ed Nightingale 2-6 6-3 1-0 retired
Ed Nightingale
Tony Careswell (5)	Tony Careswell 6-1 6-0	Tony Careswell  6-2 6-2	Mark Stapleton 6-2 6-3
Walter Reid
Brian Coffey	Alex Raybould 7-5 6-2
Alex Raybould
Dudley Leigh	Bryan Shiffman 6-4 7-6	Mark Stapleton 6-1 6-4
Bryan Shiffman
Huw Crompton bt Paul Rubie 6-3 6-2	Mark Stapleton 6-0 6-3
Mark Stapleton (2)

Singles:   Men's,   Ladies    Doubles:   Men's,   Ladies,   Mixed  

Order of Play,   Match Reports,   Biographies,   Gossip,   Rules  

	Ladies' Open Singles Holder : Malika Sood Sponsored by SABMiller plc
Round 1 Sun 15 July	Round 2 Sun 22 July	Semi-final Wed 25 July	Final Sat 28 July	Winner
	Christine Thompson (1)	Christine Thompson 6-0 6-4	Christine Thompson 6-1 6-3	Malika Sood 7-6 9-77-68-6
Moira Duncan	Philippa Glynn 6-4 6-2
Philippa Glynn
	Marjan Denis (3)	Marjan Denis 6-3 6-4
Julia Abbott	Elena Valarche 4-6 6-2 6-0
Elena Valarche
	Sally Tornow	Ros Norkett 7-6 6-3	Malika Sood 7-5 6-1
	Ros Norkett (4)
	Jenni Davis	Malika Sood 6-1 7-5
	Malika Sood (2)

	Men's Open Doubles Holders : Sultan Gangji & Mark Stapleton Sponsored by SABMiller plc
Round 1 Sun 15 July	Round 2 Sun 22 July	Semi-final Wed 25 July	Final Sat 28 July	Winner
	Cedric de la Chaise Jeff Fine (1)	Cedric de la Chaise Jeff Fine  6-1 6-2	Cedric de la Chaise Jeff Fine 4-6 6-4 6-1	Mark Stapleton Sultan Gangji 6-2 6-4
Paul Miller Maciek Janowski	Paul Miller Maciek Janowski 2-6 6-3 6-2
Charles Rubinstein Vince Sudbery
Darren Kaye Joris Fletcher (3)	Darren Kaye Joris Fletcher  6-3 6-1	Darren Kaye Joris Fletcher 6-2 6-3
James Angus Oliver Brock
Jonathan Bell Bryan Shiffman	Martin Raybould Alex Raybould 6-4 6-2
Martin Raybould Alex Raybould
Walter Reid Philip Reid	Walter Reid Philip Reid  6-1 6-4	Simon Nelson Brian Coffey 6-3 6-4	Mark Stapleton Sultan Gangji 6-1 6-1
Michael Goldman Martin Schotness
Tony Careswell Laurent Deckers	Simon Nelson Brian Coffey 0-1 retired
Simon Nelson Brian Coffey (4)
Huw Crompton Mark Webb	Huw Crompton Mark Webb 6-1 6-1	Mark Stapleton Sultan Gangji 6-0 6-2
Vivek Sood Nikhil Sood
Ed Nightingale Richard Nightingale	Mark Stapleton Sultan Gangji 6-2 6-3
Mark Stapleton Sultan Gangji (2)

 

	Ladies' Open Doubles Holders : Christine Thompson & Malika Sood Sponsored by SABMiller plc
	Round 1 Sat 21 July	Semi-final Tue 24 July	Final Sat 28 July	Winner
	Christine Thompson Malika Sood (1)	Christine Thompson Malika Sood 6-0 6-2	Christine Thompson Malika Sood 6-2 6-3	Christine Thompson Malika Sood 6-2 7-5
	Sally Tornow Gillian Green
	Marie Woodthorpe Jenni Davis (3)	Moira Duncan Marjan Denis 1-6 6-3 0-5 retired
	Moira Duncan Marjan Denis
	Julia Abbot Julia Boiko	Ros Norkett Sue Ehr w/o	Ros Norkett Sue Ehr 7-6 4-6 7-67-2
	Ros Norkett Sue Ehr (4)
	Philippa Glynn Elena Valarche	Philippa Glynn Elena Valarche 3-6 6-3 7-6
	Ludmilla Stapleton Jane Boyle (2)

	Open Mixed Doubles Holders : Christine Thompson & Darren Kaye Sponsored by SABMiller plc
Round 1 Sun 15 July	Round 2 Thurs 19 July	Round 3   Sunday 22 July	Semi-final Tue 24 July	Final Thu 26 July	Winner
	Cedric de la Chaise Jane Boyle (1)	Cedric de la Chaise Jane Boyle 6-3 7-6	Cedric de la Chaise Jane Boyle 6-1 6-2	Christine Thompson Darren Kaye 6-1 6-3	Christine Thompson Darren Kaye 6-7 6-4 6-3
Michael Goldman Susan Grossman	Jeff Fine Carol Jardine 7-5; 6-1
Jeff Fine Carol Jardine
Nikhil Sood Radhika Sood	Charles Rubinstein Veronique Deloye 6-2 7-5	Simon Nelson Sally Tornow 6-1 6-1
Charles Rubinstein Veronique Deloye
	Simon Nelson Sally Tornow
	Christine Thompson Darren Kaye (4)	Christine Thompson Darren Kaye 6-4 6-0	Christine Thompson Darren Kaye 6-2 6-1
	James Angus Elena Valarche
	Huw Crompton Sue Ehr	Paul O'Flynn Marjan Denis 6-4 6-2
	Paul O'Flynn Marjan Denis
	Brian Coffey Ros Norkett	Paul Miller Philippa Glynn 6-7 6-4 6-3	Sultan Gangji Jenni Davis 6-3 6-0	Mark Stapleton Ludmilla Stapleton 6-3 6-3
	Paul Miller Philippa Glynn
Vince Sudbery Clare McNamara	Vince Sudbery Clare McNamara 6-3 4-6 6-3	Sultan Gangji Jenni Davis 6-0 6-1
Joris Fletcher Julia Fletcher
	Sultan Gangji Jenni Davis (3)
	Vivek Sood Malika Sood	Vivek Sood Malika Sood 6-3 6-4	Mark Stapleton Ludmilla Stapleton 6-0 7-5
Paul Rubie Sue Latimer	Paul Rubie Sue Latimer 6-3 6-3
Dudley Leigh Jan Prower
Julia Abbott Oliver Brock	Julia Abbott Oliver Brock 7-6 6-2	Mark Stapleton Ludmilla Stapleton 6-1 6-4
Moira Duncan Bryan Shiffman
	Mark Stapleton Ludmilla Stapleton (2)

Rules

Sultan Gangji and Marjan Denis

2006 Champions	2006 Champions and Runners Up
Link to Bigger Picture	Link to Bigger Picture

Singles:   Men's,   Ladies    Doubles:   Men's,   Ladies,   Mixed  

Order of Play,   Match Reports,   Biographies,   Gossip,   Rules