The first East Anglia Tennis & Squash Club Ladies’ Charity Doubles Tennis Tournament of 2023, sponsored by Niche Flowers, was held on Wednesday 24th May – the only sunny & warm day of the week.

Sixteen pairs of ladies from all over Norfolk & Suffolk congregated at Lime Tree Road to take part. The format was four rounds of tennis in a “Compass” draw whereby winners went into the “forward” draw and first round losers into the “backward” draw ensuring everyone had four matches of 11 games each and played all morning. Thus, the tennis portion of the day was finished by 1pm, ready for presentations, lunch and the ever-popular raffle.

This year Diane Bush & Margaret Brockes had to step in to run the event in the absence of Derek Perry who was very ill and in hospital.

Winners of the forward draw were Susanna Cooper & Jo Gowing from Brooke and the runners-up were Kate Smith & Sarah Wells from Beccles. The winners of the backward draw were June Thomas (EATSC) and Sally Hardwick (Cringleford). They all received beautiful bouquets courtesy of Libby Peryer of Niche Flowers – https://www.nicheflowers.com

Sharon Watts, cake-maker extraordinaire at the club prepared a wonderful lunch enjoyed by all while club manager, Alasdair, was kept busy making jugs of Pimms!

The raffle, orchestrated by NLTA President, Mike Walker, raised £400 which, at the request of Libby, was donated to New Routes – a charity supporting refugees in Norfolk – https://newroutes.org.uk

Photos attached showing

Winners of the Backward Draw June Thomas (left) and Sally Hardwick (right) with Libby Peryer (centre)