Playing

Sunday fun round-robin ("American") tournaments

2025 Events - see Events Page for provisional dates.

2024 Events:

28th April event postponed, due to likely rainy weather;

23rd June event - 27 players attended;

4th August event - 29 players.

13th October saw the 18th annual "pink" charity event. 36 players took part, the highest since records began, plus at least 6 non-playing spectators, including Bernard Gormley. £375 was collected for the charity this year, a record. There were three joint winners on the day – Bob, Janine & Clifford. The “pinkest person” was Barry. The overall American champion across all 3 events this year was Nita, and she was presented with the Ellen Gormley Cup for 2024. Final leader board here. Pink photos below:

Fun round-robin tournaments (sometimes called "American" tournaments) are held on various Sundays from April to September, with a special event in October (see below). These are tournaments for players of all standards and ages and there is usually food and refreshments available. It was once said that the best egg sandwiches in Essex are often to be found at these events!

The tournament consists of a series of doubles matches, played with different partners and opponents. Each match usually comprises six games. Depending on the numbers attending, four or five rounds of matches are played. Each game won scores a point. The winner is the person with the highest aggregate points throughout the afternoon.

There is a monthly prize and a small trophy for the highest scores on the day and the "American Cup", now redesignated as The Ellen Gormley Cup, is awarded to the player with the highest aggregate score over the whole season.

The ‘Pink' tournament is the last event of the year, usually in the third week of October. Players are invited to dress in pink and there’s a prize for the ‘pinkest person’. The proceeds from the afternoon go to the "Wear It Pink" breast cancer research charity. Over £3,000 has been donated since we started this event in 2007.

2023:

We held our first event on 21st May and saw an excellent attendance of 19 players, followed by well-attended events on 25th June and 6th August, each with 17 players.

The "Pink" event in October saw 29 players, the second-highest number ever. Provisionally we have raised £300 for the charity - the joint-highest total in our 17 years.

Leaderboard here. Overall champion was Neil Bromiley.

Some May photos below, featuring Chris, Clifford, Neil, John G, Teresa, Susannah plus the presentation ceremony. And below those, some photos from October (many more can be found within the October bulletin on the News pages).

2022: Events took place on 31st July and 25th September with the final "Pink" charity event on 16th October - photo below: £221 was collected for the charity. The tennis winner on the day was Jo Redding of Mountnessing TC. The pinkest person was Janine Brecknell. The overall American champion across the three events this year was John Bright.