Several intrepid CURTC members made the trips to The Hyde, the UK’s western-most Court in Dorset. The Court has had a colourful history before being restored to its rightful purpose as a result of one of the first Lottery funded sports facility projects.  It should be on everyone’s must visit list, IMO, and well worth the journey. In a great day of tennis, Andrew Petrie just fell short in a comeback from 1 set and 1-5 down, Nige Parslow, Dave Isherwood and myself all earned handicap improvements while The Hyde took one back in the Doubles. First a collage*…

Clockwise from top left: John Davies (Hyde), Dave isherwood (W), Andrew Petrie, Nige Parslow(W), Adrian Paterson (Hyde)

The following Saturday it was the rather closer Thames Valley for the match at Holyport. Their Club is thriving following a recent threat from developers and has a great Court including a scoreboard connected to the marker’s RT Marker scoring system.
A first for me were several ‘Dog on Court’ incidents. Here is the ‘culprit’ looking cute and safe, at the time, in the Dedans.

Dog not stopping play

Holyport ? – ?? CURTC

Scoring proved to be a bit problematic as the original schedule of 2 Sets per match was abandoned at 1 Set-all in the first match. Nonetheless is is probably safe to say that Anthony Bailey may (or may not) have been victorious, but myself and Andrew Snodgrass were definitely not while Tony Kennedy probably just lost. I’m counting our Doubles as an honorary draw as we slow burned from 5-1 down in the 2nd set while TK and Andrew did win their Doubles. Anyway, it was an excellent day of tennis and the lunch met the exacting standards of even our most picky travellers! Here’s the link to the google photos album: Holyport

Tony Kennedy

Chris Figg (Holyport), Andrew Snodgrass, Conor O’Shea (Holyport), Tony Kennedy

Many thanks to our Hosts for their Hospitality, Tennis, Marking and two excellent Lunches! We look forward to seeing them at the Home of Real Tennis in the equivalent weeks next year (if not before).

* Click on any image for a larger version!