Tombola Tournament 2024

The club's annual Tombola tournament concluded on September 29. We had 32 entrants this year, which were eventually whittled down to just 4: Alison McBarron & Dave Cooper and Sally Brunner & Martin Ansell. 

Martin’s recent return to tennis after a 30 year layoff proved significant in the opening set, which he and Sally lost 6/2. But with the crowd at times in hysterics at the creative play, Martin and Sally took the second set 6/4, levelling the match at one set all. There were many long rallies, and the standard of tennis was improving all the time.

To say this was fun would be an understatement, and but for a few critical errors at net in the latter stages, the match could have gone either way.  It was Sally and Martin who eventually took the third set and the title, however, clinching the third set 6/4.

Jeremy Hamer, Club Chairman

You can see the final Tombola 2024 draw here. 

Tombola Tournament 2023

Success for Sally & Malcolm!

With a rare break in the recent rain, the final of our 2023 Tombola Tournament took place on Friday, 27 October as planned, in front of an excellent crowd that built throughout the match.

The two teams: Sally Brunner and Malcolm Locke against Stuart Angell and Kevin McBarron. This unusual doubles format is aimed at creating a level of unpredictability about the eventual winners, although I think it is fair to say the best pair won. Relative tennis newcomer Malcolm partnered one of the club's top talents, Sally. On the other side of the net, Kevin had returned to tennis this April after a 30-year gap while Stuart has for the last couple of years been transferring his county level table tennis skills to the larger format! Anybody's game?

The first set went quite quickly, with Sally and Malcolm’s consistency not being matched by their opponents (6/1). However, the quality of tennis was improving and Kevin and Stuart were not going to let this go easily, taking the second set into a tightly fought tie-break, which Sally and Malcom won (7/6). The rallies got longer, the crowd became more involved and a great afternoon was had by all. Congratulations to both finalists.

Jeremy Hamer, Club Chairman