Brigands Doubles Tournament for Peripatetic Clubs 28th September 2019

Stuart Kerr and Mark Maclure represented the IRTA in this year’s Brigands Doubles tournament, kindly hosted by Hardwick House. The IRTA pair faced a serious challenge in their group, battling significant handicap differences against each opponent. An enjoyable day’s play nonetheless; many thanks to the hosts and organisers.

Report

As always, all the matches were very competitive and hard fought. In group two, the combined brains of Simon Constantine, Andy Chinneck and yours truly were severely tested to calculate all the permutations of which team might go through! The result of a great day of tennis saw the semis contested by the Brigands against the Jesters and the Old Rugbeians against the LRTA. Despite a really tough handicap for the Jesters and the LRTA suffering an ankle war wound, both prevailed to pit themselves against each other in the final. The LRTA took the day, winning 6–4, despite the Jesters keeping on the pressure to the very end.

Many congratulations to the LRTA, who have now won this tournament in 2015, 2016, 2017 and 2019. They have now overtaken the Hurlingham Pigeons who have won it three times. It is about time another team knocked these two off the podium!

Thank you to all the players, many of whom travelled good distances, for playing and in such good spirit, as always. Thanks also to Andy Chinneck for a long day of faultless marking and keeping the tournament played to time. Thanks to Simon Constantine who kindly took a turn marking to give Andy a well-needed lunchbreak! Also many thanks to the Friends Of Hardwick Tennis Court and, in particular, to Tim Tomalin, Chairman, for allowing us to host this tournament for the past few years at their lovely court, which is always a joy to play and visit. Last, but not least, a huge thanks to my lovely wife Victoria whose unfailing commitment to plan well in advance and provision throughout the day makes it a special occasion for us all.

Well done Eve and Amy!

—Malcolm Thorp

Full results

The full results sheet is available:

• 2019 Brigands results [PDF]