The Annual Inter-University Real Tennis Tournament ran very smoothly this year, thanks in large part to the pros Kees Ludekens and Peter Paterson, who dedicated their weekends to marking matches and hosting 41 real tennis players from six universities across the country. Special mention must also go to Ben Geytenbeek for his tireless effort and expertise in devising the draw and adjusting timings as matches overran or got ahead of schedule.

Ben Geytenbeek

Peter Paterson

27 players across 12 teams took part in the Inter-University Cup, providing some great tennis through all the rounds, and the thunderous support from the Middlesex players in particular gave the tournament a real buzz.

Middlesex 2 (Rohit Jain, Reuben Ard) made it through to the final against Cambridge 1, their third Cambridge opposition after a dominant performance against Cambridge 5 and a close-fought 2-1 victory (8/3, 5/8, 8/3) over Cambridge 2. We unfortunately missed out on what was shaping up to be a close match-up between Middlesex 2 and the top-seeded Bristol 1 team due to a scheduling clash but nonetheless they were [putting them] in the final and raring to go with plenty of support.

Cambridge 1 (Jin Lee, Arthur Adams) beat Durham (Hugo Pennant [handicap singles winner], Hal Hornby) in their first round in a game that was much closer than the eventual scores suggest and then faced Middlesex 1 (Oliver Vidana, Faustas Vilimas) in the semi-final. Despite a brilliant performance from Oliver, however, beating Jin in the First Singles, Cambridge emerged victorious to go through to the final.

In the final Rohit put up a great fight using a combination of his skills from real tennis and from cricket to take Jin to 13 games, but ultimately Jin emerged victorious. Similarly, Reuben was feeling a little fatigued after his long day of real tennis but nevertheless took four good games from Arthur in the second singles.

Cambridge 1

Middlesex 2

Ultimately the home team used their home court advantage to win [won] the Cup, but we at CURTC are looking forward to hosting another brilliant tournament next year and hope to see O*ford and Exeter back in the fold for an even bigger draw!

Arthur Adams, CURTC

ps Many thanks to the Dedanist’s Foundation for their generous support of University Real Tennis!

pps Photo credits: Jin Lee & Jacqui Siu