Exciting finale to annual mixed open tournament held at Woodland Tennis Club.

WOODLAND Lawn Tennis Club held its annual mixed veterans’ open tournament, the Calvados Cup.

Despite the wet weather, the standard of play was high as the 12 pairs, from all over the South West, competed in round robin matches to determine the semi-finalists.

As the sun emerged, the home pairing, Nick Griffiths and Jo le Neve Foster beat Tony Pearman and his partner Claire Vickery, and Mike Maiden and Brenda Plummer from Clevedon Tennis Club overcame Mary Walkerdine and Adrian Somerfield, last year’s winners.

The final was extremely close with the momentum constantly switching between the two couples. He first four games went with serve and were characterised by some excellent net play by Jo and Nick and some carefully placed passing shots down the middle of the court by Mike and Brenda.

The advantage was with the home team in the fifth game, where Jo and Nick’s net play pressured their opponents into making some mistakes and they were able to break serve.

However, Nick was unable to hold his serve due to the quality of Mike’s passing shots and the match reached three games all. The next two games went with serve, but it was the ninth that proved to be crucial.

This game was marked by the variety of shots used by all four players, seeing a mixture of lobs, drop shots, passing shots and smashes. The final point saw Jo chase down a carefully placed lob which she returned to win the game. Nick held his serve in convincing fashion to win the final 6-4.

The Calvados Cup was then presented by president Jeremy Lambart. Afterwards, secretary, Liz Yeo said: “The tournament was run most efficiently by chairman, Les Treen and the standard of play seemed to be higher than ever.”

For more details on the club and its activities, please contact Judy Cannon on 01934 629819 or visit the website: www.woodlandtennisclub.co.uk