To celebrate President's Day at Morpeth Cricket, Hockey & Tennis Club on Sunday 28th August, Paul Ward organised the club's first ever American-style doubles tournament, with doubles pairings changing after each quick-fire 15 minute mini-match.  To help speed things along, sudden death points decided deuce games and tied games at the end of a match, and service lets were ignored and considered live and in play, which took a bit of getting used to.

Five doubles matches were played concurrently, in good spirits, with the remaining players taking a well-earned breather.  We welcomed Janet Horscroft for the first time in such a competition, with Adam Florance, a prospective new member, also making his debut.

After two and a half hours of fast-paced competition, we retired to the clubhouse and patio to indulge in well-earned refreshments in the afternoon sun.  Here the announcement was made that Colin Bentham had narrowly pipped Jake Fewell-Williams to the title, earning a tin of tennis balls to boot.  Lilian Brown was best placed lady.

Special mention goes to Bill Dunn, for adding some crushing backhand drives to his customary sledgehammer forehands and sledgehammer banter, and to Elizabeth Dodds and Peter Sanderson, for very enterprisingly denying Graham a let when he was baulked by Iain Hedley and stopped his shot for fear of eviscerating Iain.

Many thanks to John Nichol and Yvonne Dunn for counting the scores and performing timekeeping duties.