The 8th Engadin Challenge took place over the weekend of the 10/11 June 2006 at Lyceum Alpinum in Zuoz, Switzerland hosted by the Zuoz Old Boys Club and by kind permission of the Lyceum. Over 30 players entered the competition including a number of senior players from the Lyceum who are ably coached at the moment by Seb Cooley with help from George Campbell and Kurt Schmitt. The standard of play from the boys was excellent with André Hodel, Lucas Runser and Pai Wang all reaching the quarterfinals or better and these boys still have another year at school.17 English speaking players including wives/partners joined the event. The usual minibus provided transport from Zurich to Zuoz and the weekend started on Friday night with a dinner at the Restaurant Crusch Alva. The whole weekend was blessed with clear blue skies and temperatures of 30C. Seldom can the weather have been so perfect and all agreed the conditions were better in June than September when the competition had been held in the past.
On Saturday, the players were split into 4 groups of four pairs. Special mention must be made of Richard Bourne and of Gerald Campbell and John Cooley who partnered their sons. Particularly close matches were played between Dominic Perks and Nicholas Oechsle v the Campbells and Mark Mettler and Chris Morisson v Doug Foster and Colin Ralph with the former pairs prevailing. The quarterfinals saw a close match between Chris Tanner and Pai Wang v Lucas Runser and Martin Powell. All play was suspended at 3 pm for the England v Paraguay World Cup football match for 2 hours. A wide screen was available at the Restaurant Dorta to watch a tense, defensive English performance.
The weekend would not be the same without the ladies programme: Seraina Haering guided the group of ladies and retired fives players to the picturesque village of Guarda (Home of “Schellen-Ursli”) were a superb lunch was offered. But without saying, the highlight of the day was the one hour roundtrip flight over the Swiss Alps in the afternoon. Dieti Mettler organised two smaller aircrafts which gave room for three passengers each. Some strong wind turned this adventure in to a rollercoaster flight and some passengers decided to change face-colour suddenly into green. Fortunately, disposal bags were not needed but most people were relived when the machine touched the runway for a save return. Nevertheless, nobody wanted to miss this spectacular flight over part of the Alps with deep blue sky without a single cloud.
Saturday evening’s festivities took place at the Restaurant Dorta in Zuoz and Daniel Haering was presented with a teddy bear for Ladina tirelessly knitted by the English branch of the Ladies Knitting Union! The Semi-finals were contested between Seb and John Cooley v Anthony (T) Walters and Daniel Haering. Seb managed to thoroughly exhaust his opponents before succumbing 2-0. Tim Fletcher and André Hodel lost the first game to Lucas Runser and Martin Powell before running out winners in three games. The final was a five set match played in sunny conditions on the upper courts which are open to the elements. T Walters left hand found the box too often for his opponents and with solid support from Daniel Haering, they ran out worthy winners: Anthony (T) Walters & Daniel Haering beat Tim Fletcher and André Hodel (12-, 12-7, 12-6).
Congratulations to T for emerging the victor after supporting the tournament along with his friends in this and past years and to Daniel Haering for winning the Engadin Challenge Cup following on from his success in winning the Charterhouse International tournament in September 2005. Congratulations also to Tim Fletcher for his achievement in reaching the final at first attempt and to André Hodel for representing the Lyceum at this final stage so energetically and skilfully.
M.P.P
Engadin Challenge Report by Martin Powell
Created 25th March 2007 by Mike Fenn
efa@etonfives.co.uk