Saturday 7th September brought grey clouds and sunny spells to Great Shelford as the tennis club members gathered to watch the culmination of the club’s summer tournaments. The winners would finally be decided.

Matches kicked off with men’s, ladies’, boys’ and girls’ singles. These were followed by mixed doubles, men’s plate, men’s doubles and ladies’ doubles. All the competitors played some fabulous tennis and the matches were both competitive and enjoyable.

The men’s singles, in particular, was a brilliant match – the best seen at the club for many years. It was contested by Tony Ballardie and Jamie Blundell, both recent additions to the club membership. They are pictured here, Tony (left) and Jamie (right) with club Chairman James Diver.

Both players move fantastically well around the court and hit with power and precision. This made for a very tight match, with the first set going to Jamie in six games to three. The second went to Tony in six games to two. This sent the match to a deciding third set which was very close, going all the way to a tie-break at six games all. After nearly three hours of hard hitting the final ball was struck and Jamie Blundell emerged the winner. He is pictured here with the trophy, which was kindly donated by Redmayne Arnold & Harris.

You can see more photos from the day here. Thanks are due to Mel Kirwan for valiantly texting, emailing and calling tournament entrants to make sure matches got played. Without Mel’s hard work there would have been no matches to contest. Also to James Diver for manning the barbecue and keeping spectators and players alike fed and watered.

Congratulations to all our winners and runners up in 2019.

Men’s singles: winner Jamie Blundell, runner-up Tony Ballardie

Ladies’ singles: (w) Kat Deudney, (r-up) Keri Tobin

Boys’ singles: (w) Jack Seaborn, (r-up) Jack Deudney

Girls’ singles: (w) Annie Sainson, (r-up) Imogen Butler-Burd

Men’s singles plate: (w) Rik Henson, (r-up) Andrew Tindall

Mixed doubles: (w) Matt Sanders & Angharad Harris, (r-up) Olly Halliwell & Jemima Halliwell

Men’s doubles: (w) Alex Button & Ed Gee, (r-up) Manne Guron & Tony Ballardie

Ladies’ doubles: (w) Kat Deudney & Keri Tobin, (r-up) Ali Burd & Wendy Butler