Ipswich Tournament

1999-2000

The Ipswich Tournament, as has become customary in recent years, was again held early in January and this year attracted thirteen pairs, with an overwhelming majority of the season’s OI regulars participating, together with a combination of pupils, one master and, disappointingly few, non Ipswichians. The weather, though cold, was thankfully dry and all three of the heavily used courts played consistently.

The tournament was organised on a straight knockout basis, with an ingenious process whereby first round losers in the top half of the draw played off for the remaining places in the lower half and the pairing policy worked well, as usual, to produce as many close matches as possible, though it was questionable whether a seeding policy had been employed with the majority of the OI league regulars appearing in the top half of the draw. [The seeding is mainly done on the basis of who can get there at what time. Ed.]

Saturday produced some fine matches, the highlights being Graves and Sherer v Boughton and E Fletcher, Friend and Sharland v T Fletcher and Carr, Caudle and Arasaratnam v Graves and Sherer, and R and S Freeman v M Fenn and Wyndham.

At the Dinner and some time before the port, kindly donated by the O.I. Chairman, Terry Cracknell began to flow, the semi-final line-up had been decided for the following day. The Freeman brothers being set to take on John Caudle and Reuben Arasaratnam in the first match, with Courtney Friend and Tom Sharland up against Steve Burnell and Andrew Cameron in the other. In previous years the alcohol consumption may have influenced the following morning’s results, but some careful maturity conspired to see the Freeman brothers breeze through their encounter with the combination of experience and youth provided by their opposition. Indeed the Freeman pairing looked increasingly strong throughout the weekend and we look forward to seeing a lot more of them both representing the Club in the future.

The second semi-final was a longer affair with Friend and Sharland taking a close-fought but rusty first game 13-11 and rushing to a 9-0 lead in the second before Burnell and Cameron rallied to level the match for the loss of only one further point , before ending the contest by clinching the third game 12-8.

And so to the final. As the temperature dropped the Freeman brothers took the psychological advantage with a brisk warm-up jog around the School field and continued to improve on court as, having lost the first game (9-12) they won the second (12-6) and forced a lead at the end of the third (12-10). Burnell and Cameron again fought back to level it by a 12-6 margin in the fourth, but the superior fitness, power and, ultimately, consistency they had shown throughout the tournament saw Bob and Steve Freeman through to take the Graves cup after nearly three hours of a worthy final. The score in the final game being 12-9.

Thanks are due to the School for allowing use of the facilities; the caterers for an enjoyable meal on the Saturday night, not to mention Terry Cracknell and Courtney Friend for their repartee; the organiser, without whose efforts the weekend would not have been such a success; and to the participants, the combination of which made the event the success it was. We are all looking forward to next year.

Results

Semi-Finals:
• S Burnell & A Cameron beat C Friend and T Sharland
  11-13, 12-10, 12-8
• R Freeman & S Freeman beat J Caudle & R Arasaratnam
  12-5, 12-4


Final:
• R Freeman & S Freeman beat S Burnell & A Cameron
  9-12, 12-6, 12-10, 6-12, 12-9


Plate A Final:
• M Fenn & T Wyndham beat J Nicholson & E Boughton
  12-5, 12-3, 12-5


Plate B Final:
• M Graves & D Sherer beat M Quinton & E Mockridge
  6-12, 12-9, 13-11

S.D.B.

Constructed by Mike Fenn
4th May 2000
efa@etonfives.co.uk

Go to EFA Home page