Owen-George Club Championship
The quarter finals played over the week saw our former assistant professional now ex-professional Nick Jury beat Alan Moug 2 sets to 1, Doug Holden emerge victorious over Mark Maclure 2 sets to 0, Tom Lewis earn a 2 sets to 0 win over John Miller and Paddy Sutton get a walkover when the Chairman decided tot try his hand at National level age group tennis.
The first of Saturday’s semi finals-pitched 2013 and 2015 Club Champion Tom Lewis against the man who had spent a lot of time coaching him. With Tom now the better player by 10 handicap points the difference in a scratch match was clear and Tom secured a speedy victory 6-0, 6-1.
The second semi-final was much more competitive with Paddy Sutton taking on Doug Holden. Doug took the first set 6-2 but Sutton came back in the second taking it to 5-5 before finally succumbing giving Holden the set 6-5 and a place in the final.
Sunday’s final was a match that was all about the service. Doug Holden won the toss, elected to serve and quickly took the first two games. Tom Lewis was forced into uncharacteristic errors as he fought to win any points and set the valuable chases that would allow the players to change ends. It was the third game before Tom had his first chance to serve but this proved to be a brief visit with Doug regaining the end and continuing to dominate with powerful accurate shots into the corners. Lewis was made to wait until the 5th game at 4-0 down before he could make his second visit to the service end in-front of the watching family, friends and club members. This time he was able to hold the spot and took his first game. It was now Doug Holden’s turn to find himself stuck at the Hazard end as Tom Lewis found his rhythm and began to regain the ground he had lost at the start of the set. Both players demonstrated a wide range of shots and some wonderful ‘gets’ retrieving seemingly unreachable balls but it was Lewis who had the edge in the next close-fought games recovering to 4-4.
With the game now level again it began to resemble the more familiar pattern with regular changes from Service to Hazard end. Holden took the 9th game and went up 40-0 in the 10th giving himself three set points but Lewis wasn’t done yet and pulled back to take the game and level the set at 5 all. A remarkable feat made all the more remarkable by having to repeat it in the deciding game to take the set 6-5.
The second set was also about serve but this time it was the Lewis serve that dominated. Tom had found his length and an angle off the penthouse dropping down the back wall that Holden struggled to return. While Holden tried many different approaches the power and accuracy had been forced out of his service returns leaving Lewis able to dominate the rests taking the set 6-0 and the match and Club-Championship 2 sets to 0.
Blythe Liggins Solicitors has agreed to continue its association with Moreton Morrell and the Owen-George Club Championship agreeing to sponsor the 2021 and 2022 competitions. We were therefore pleased to welcome Richard Thornton of Blythe Liggins and MMTCC to present the trophy that bears the name of his first employer, when he was a tender article clerk, to the victorious three time Club Champion Tom Lewis.