Newmarket & Suffolk Real Tennis Club

The Chetwood Trophy is a singles, handicapped competition held at The Royal Tennis Court (Hampton Court) annually. Each club in the country is allowed one (or as in 2011) two entrants who must have won or been runner-up in their Club's singles, handicap, knock-out competition. Our qualifying competition is the Brown & Co so our entrants this year were the winner Adrian Thurley and the runner-up Peter Milner. Here are their reports.

Adrian.

The competition is held over three days, the first two comprising the group stages where the numbers need to be reduced to 16 for the knock-out stage on the final day (Sunday). As I was landing back from Dubai on the Friday I asked if I could play as late as possible - in fact I was put in the final group playing from 6-9 pm on the Saturday. There were 7 groups of 4 so the winners & runners-up plus the two best placed third placed players would go through. I won my first game against Will Harris (49 handicap) 6-5. I lost my next game 6-5 to Stephen McKechnie (42) having been 5-5 and 40 all! The last of my group games was against a young lady from Queens who had won both her games, had a large group of enthusiastic supporters and could hit the ball harder than Ken Smith! If I lost badly to her I would be out. In the event I won 6-3 to top the group! My wife had hoped to go home early Sunday morning but it was not to be!

My next game was against Callum Maclean (47) who I managed to beat 6-3 to reach the quarter final! There I met another lady, Lorraine Page, playing off a 69 handicap! 1 serve, banned tambour etc! I managed to serve only one fault and avoided the tambour to win 6-2! Getting this far was way beyond my expectations but I was of course delighted. I was also looking forward to the semi-final as it was against Oli Watson a young player (early twenties?) with a 30 handicap who I had watched a lot during the previous three days - a very stylish young player who is surely destined for great things.

As I suspected, I had now met my match and lost 1-6, albeit I had game point in two games which I really should have won – losing them both with unforced errors!

Oli then won the final against a 15 year old, Giles Canning, with a 36 handicap. This was a thrilling match, very close and a fitting end to a great weekend.

Overall this was a fantastic experience, my best experience in Real Tennis to date and an honour! You can rest assured I shall be tackling nest Year's Brown & Co with even more determination!

Peter.

To play at Hampton Court was an ambition, to play in a tournament there, being one of the only two from Newmarket, was a privilege. This is how I viewed being invited to play Hampton Court, in the Chetwood Trophy.

As a result, I lost two matches and won one, which meant that I didn’t go through to the Sunday knock-out. However I thoroughly enjoyed the day and from my point of view, went down fighting. I’d like to say that the matches I lost were close, but they didn’t feel that way to me. Still I gave them a run for their money.

I lost 6-4 against Peter Cahusac and 6-3 against Dave Davies.

The match I won against Levi Gale was more of a cat and mouse game. Due to the handicap difference, 26 against 55, it was 30 - owe ½ 30, in my favour and no tambours with only one fault as well! So tactically I could attack without worrying about losing the odd point or two, which I did. As a result I won 6-2.

Levi Gale won our round robin and went through to the knock-out on Sunday where he lost a close match against Giles Gunning 6-5. Giles went on to play in the final, losing 6-4 to Oli Watson, who knocked out Adrian earlier.

If you ever get the chance, then I would thoroughly recommend playing at Hampton Court, you can almost feel the history swirling around you.