Welcome to the Amherst Tennis Club's Competition Results page! Here you'll find updates on all our exciting internal tournaments, box leagues, and the latest team league match results. Whether you're following our singles and doubles box leagues, checking up on our fun tournaments, or celebrating our team successes, this is the place to stay informed. Be sure to check back regularly for the latest scores, highlights, and photos of all the action on court!

Weekend of 19/20 October

Amherst hosted its inaugural Under 45s tournament this weekend and managed to crown both a singles champion and doubles champions within just 4 hours of intense competition!
 
Congratulations to Josh Craig, who broke in the 10th and deciding game to win the singles trophy and beat Stefan Le Breuilly, our runner up, by a scoreline of 6-4 in the final. The bronze medal went to Will Ellwood, who fell short at the semi-final stage but had finished top of his group with 16/18 games won.
 
Although a mixed gender competition, our top lady of the day, and recipient of the Venus Clearwater trophy, was Billie Kotting.  She won a close 8-6 tiebreak victory over Millie Mitchell-Pointer to take home the trophy. 

The singles tournament decided our pairs for the doubles follow-up tournament, and we had an equally exciting final as the singles. It was a battle of the ages with both our youngest and oldest competitors taking part. In the end, youth won, and Tom Hodgson (who is only 14!) and Jack Watson defeated Jon Ellwood and James Holt 7-5.

We'd also like to give a big thank you to all those who came out to watch. Your support helped keep the players going throughout the competition! It was touch and go with the weather early on, but luckily, the sun made an appearance, and the raincoats came off just in time for a fantastic afternoon of tennis.

A big thank you again to everyone who participated, and we look forward to making this an annual tradition. See you next year (if you’re under 45)!

Weekend of 12/13 October

Dream team tournament

A big thank you to all of the Amherst Dream Teams who participated in Saturday's tournament. The first tournament of Amherst's revamped schedule was a hit, with 8 teams battling it out for supremacy on an overcast afternoon. The threat of rain wasn't enough to dampen spirits, however.

Top spot in our first group of 4 was won by 'the Tortoises and the Hare', an expertly composed team of Dylan Preece (a turtle in tortoise's clothing) Pearl 'the hare' Hare, and Billie Kotting (tortoise no.2). Despite a spirited effort from first group runners up 'the Reverse Oreos', which included a fantastic final effort to win the combined singles 10-7 (earning Bright Temba an award for shot of the day), the Tortoises and the Hare snuck through to the finals by a 1 point margin.

In our second group of 4, 'the Outpatients' victory was never in doubt, offering up a dominant performance over all of their opposition. Brian, Dermot and Nigel swept up 90 of a possible 93 points, whatever treatment this team had from the Conquest clearly worked. Second place was secured by 'Cheshire's Cats', just sneaking past the 'She-woman and the Masters of the Universe',  and 'Of Millie & Men'.

The final clash was a tense affair, with each team trading wins and losses in their tiebreak-to-5 matches. With both teams deadlocked at 2 wins each, 17 points a piece, 'the Outpatients' doubles team of Dermot and Nigel managed to get the better of Pearl the Hare and Billie the Tortoise 5-3. However, Dylan the Tortoise/Turtle was having none of it, dishing up a bagel to beat Brian 5-0 in the singles, clenching the points victory for 'the Tortoises and the Hare' by a margin of 25 to 22. Riveting stuff, and goes to show, slow and steady really does win the race. A dreamy victory indeed.

To all those who fancy another crack at the gold, and to all those who didn't get a chance to play this time round, we have another Dream Team tournament taking place on Sunday 27th October - open to beginners, rusty rackets, and intermediate level players. Grab your teammates, dream up a great name, and sign yourselves up! You can enter online, or let coach Pete know your team. 

Weekend of 5/6 October

Ladies 1

On Saturday Amherst Ladies 1'st team played their first match of the winter season. Playing in Division 2 of the Sussex league having gained promotion last year we were up against Southdown 1'st Team from Lewes. In the first round Anita Pearce and Pearl Hare got off to a slow start and showed little benefit from the home advantage, making too many errors and quickly found themselves 4-0 down in the first set, but began to find their form towards the end of that set and after some tactical changes to move the opposition around much more, forcing errors from the Southdown 2nd pair, and in the end narrowing the score in that set to lose by 6 games to 3. In the second set Anita and Pearl showed that they were in fact the stronger pair and closed that set out winning 6-2, taking the match to a 10 point tie-break which they won comfortably by 10 points to 4. Meanwhile mother and daughter pairing of Deborah and Jada Ani were finding their match against the Southdown 1 st pair quite difficult with strong hitting and good depth from the opposing side, and Southdown closed out this match 6-1 6-1. So the rubbers were 1-1 after the first round. A good tactical discussion was had at half time and this proved very beneficial. Anita and Pearl started this match in much better form, hitting some good down the line passes and standing up well to the hard hitting, causing Southdown to make the errors. They raced away to win the first set 6-1 and were 5-0 up in the second set before Southdown found any sort of self belief managing to claw back 3 games to 5-3. However Anita and Pearl were determined not to let the set slip and closed the match out at 6-1 6-3. Debi and Jada had no problem at all with their second match, playing good positional tennis and proved themselves to be much steadier and by far superior to the opposing pair, winning this match very easily 6-2 6-1 So the end result was Amherst 3 - Southdown 1 which makes a very good start to the season.

Men 1

Our first outing of the winter season ended in a 3-1 loss to Sussex County 1st’s. Very enjoyable match and good standard of play and some competitive matches! Well played everyone. Their first pair were very good, one player in particular striking the ball very fiercely and cleanly. He played very well and served incredibly well too. Bullets!!! Both our pairs could really get close enough to challenging them unfortunately today, just too good. Matches against their second pair were a different story. Jeff and Dylan won, coming back from a set down to win in championship tiebreak. They did well to turn it around and then won the tiebreake from 1-4 down. Key point at 8-7 was a backhand winner by Dylan down line to bring up our match points .  Josh and Anthony also had a real tussle in their second match. They lost a very close first set on a tiebreak, but battled back from behind to take second set to a tiebreak which they won playing very well, but just came up short in end. Josh and Anthony were 6-6 in last tiebreake but a point or two went against them. Very close then to drawing the tie today. Well done again to all, a good effort. 

Wealden 2

Our Wealden 2nd team travelled to Wadhurst 1sts and came away with a 2-2 draw. Our first pair of Stefan and Jane managed to win their first match 7-6, 6-3, just holding on for the first set after leading early 5-2. Jack and Julie took on the first pair of Wadhurst and won the first set 6-3, but lost a close second set 6-4 after being 5-1 down. The championship tiebreak was also very close, but Wadhurst sneaked it, 10-8 to leave the tie at 1-1. In the second match ups, the 2nd pair from Wadhurst made it more simple against Jack and Julie, and took it 6-2, 6-3. Stef and Jane battled through the rain though, to beat the 1st pair 6-3, 6-3, including a beautiful lob by Stefan to seal the victory and make sure both teams went home with equal points.