The Henley and Marlow Tennis League: Singles Round 1

The Henley and Marlow Tennis League:

Singles Round 1

The winners' report appears below

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Thank you so much for making our first round such a success. It is always exciting for us to start a new league and we are really enjoying getting to know you all.

Despite some dreadful weather two thirds of all matches have been played which is a pretty good record and this has made for two incredibly competitive groups! We hope you have enjoyed it and will be able to return for future rounds. With your help we hope we can build the league into a permanent fixture on the local tennis calendar. Thanks again to Kate from Tennis Angels who has given this new venture such support.

The next round starts on Monday June 18 and runs until August 12.
Many thanks to all those who have already joined, and if you haven’t, but would like to, the deadline is Friday June 15.

Assuming we can have more than one groups , players who have done well will be promoted to the top group (usually, when we have several groups, the winner of a group, but often the runner up too when it has been close).

You can pay by paypal here

Men's/Mixed Singles
Winner: Mark Vaughan
Once the weather decided to stop it's assault on the British summer, this group got going nicely and we had an exciting finale at the top. Mark sealed the group by one point as he won all three of his matches, and he did so in dramatic fashion. He and Rob went into their showdown level on points, knowing the outcome of the group hinged on the match. Mark came through in three epic sets:
"Long and very close game."
Rob can be satisfied with his round too though, having picked up strong wins over Richard and David, with Richard finishing just a point behind having started the round in good form. With so many matches completed in the last three weeks of the round, this bodes well for future rounds where the weather cannot possibly be as bad for so long! Well done again to Mark on becoming the one of the first ever champions in the Henley & Marlow league!

Ladies' Singles
Winner: Gail Lederman
The bad weather didn't seem to affect the ladies one bit, as this group remained busy throughout. Gail deservedly takes the crown after an imperious round, in which she won all six of her matches. She had scares against Diane and Erna, needing to come back from a set down to win against both of them, but came through superbly. The win against Diane proved vital, with the two finishing level on points - Diane won 5 of 7 matches. Erna capped off her round by edging past Diane in yet another three-setter:
"The first 2 sets took over 2 hours to play and we decided to play the 3rd set another day as I had to go and we both wanted to play a third set. We played that set yesterday and that took an hour and a half as well. (it was very hot). A real see-saw. I went 2-0 up, Diane recovered to make it 3-2. I served for the match at 5-3 and had 5 match points serving in the sun and Diane broke back to make it 5-4. I then broke her serve for 6-4. Lots of breaks of serve also because the sun was at a tricky angle for one site of the court. A brilliant match."
This gave Erna third place, just ahead of Caroline who finished her round with two fine wins against Ruth and Heather. Busy groups always seem to make for exciting finales, and this was no different. A big thanks to everyone for their efforts, and congrats to Gail for coming out on top.

The winners will be receiving their £20 prizes and certificates and we do hope to welcome you all back next time.

In our family of local tennis leagues, we usually find that a mixed singles league works best. Players are divided into groups of approximately equal standard which means women will often beat men! However, anticipating a demand for a ladies singles round, to begin the league in Henley and Marlow we are running the mixed sex singles as usual, and a women-only singles competition...

Go to> Men's/Mixed Singles Round 1 or Ladies' Singles Round 1

Men's (technically mixed!) Singles Round 1
Monday 2nd April to Sunday 27th May 2012
Midway point for bonus points and a FREE tube of tennis balls: Sunday 29th April 2012
Please report your results to: henleyandmarlowtennisleague@gmail.com
To make input easier our end, please use the format: John McEnroe bt Bjorn Borg (Feb 21) 6-2, 4-6, 6-2.
Please do send match commentaries too - we may quote from them in our emailed round updates and include them on this page - see the symbol next to the scores!
Some thoughts on setting up matches...
Player, (LTA rating), [win/loss/UnFinished] points won

GROUP ONE
Mark Vaughan [W3] 6
Rob Hamilton [W2, L1] 5
Richard Ormerod 9.2 [W2, L2] 4

Tom Bartlett [W1, L2] 2
David Channon [L3]

Mark Vaughan bt Rob Hamilton (May 27) 6-3, 0-6, 7-5 "Long and very close game." Mark

Mark Vaughan bt Tom Bartlett (May 20) 6-3, 6-4 "Very good match," Mark

Rob Hamilton bt Richard Ormerod (May 20) 6-1, 6-3
Rob Hamilton bt David Channon (May 19) 6-0, 6-0
Tom Bartlett bt David Channon (May 17) 6-4, 6-1
Mark Vaughan bt Richard Ormerod (May 10) 6-1, 6-0
Richard Ormerod bt David Channon (May 8) 6-1, 6-0 "David suffers with a bad right-shoulder so has switched to playing left handed. Quite remarkable and he did really well. The first set was much closer than the score suggests." Richard

"David suffers with a bad right-shoulder so has switched to playing left handed. Quite remarkable and he did really well. The first set was much closer than the score suggests." Richard

Richard Ormerod bt Tom Bartlett (May 6) 6-4, 6-1 "A very tight first set that seesawed either way before a run of the last 2 sets took Richard over the line. Fine forehands and young legs from Tom. Unfortunately Tom got less consistent in the second set which was not as close as it should have been. Great game," Richard

"A very tight first set that seesawed either way before a run of the last 2 sets took Richard over the line. Fine forehands and young legs from Tom. Unfortunately Tom got less consistent in the second set which was not as close as it should have been. Great game," Richard

Ladies' Singles Round 1
Monday 2nd April to Sunday 27th May 2012
Midway point for bonus points and a FREE tube of tennis balls: Sunday 29th April 2012
Please report your results to: henleyandmarlowtennisleague@gmail.com
To make input easier our end, please use the format: John McEnroe bt Bjorn Borg (Feb 21) 6-2, 4-6, 6-2.
Please do send match commentaries too - we may quote from them in our emailed round updates and include them on this page - see the symbol next to the scores!
Some thoughts on setting up matches...
Player, (LTA rating), [win/loss/UnFinished] points won

GROUP ONE
Gail Lederman 9.2 [W6] 14 includes two bonus points
Diane King [W5, L2] 14 includes two bonus points
Erna Rubens [W4, L2] 11 includes two bonus points
Caroline Wilcock [W4, L2] 10 includes two bonus points
Pippa Wels [W3, L3] 6
Heather Symons [L6] 3 includes two bonus points
Ruth Walker [W1, L5] 2

Catherine Rogers 9.2 [L3] 2 includes two bonus points withdrawn

Nicola Bulteel withdrawn

Erna Rubens bt Diane King (May 25) 6-3, 1-6, 6-4

"The first 2 sets took over 2 hours to play and we decided to play the 3rd set another day as I had to go and we both wanted to play a third set. We played that set yesterday and that took an hour and a half as well. (it was very hot). A real see-saw. I went 2-0 up, Diane recovered to make it 3-2. I served for the match at 5-3 and had 5 match points serving in the sun and Diane broke back to make it 5-4. I then broke her serve for 6-4. Lots of breaks of serve also because the sun was at a tricky angle for one site of the court. A brilliant match. Thank you for organising a brilliant league system and I hope to be playing and joining the next one soon!" Erna

Caroline Wilcock bt Ruth Walker (April 12) 6-0, 6-1
Caroline Wilcock bt Heather Symons (May 4) 6-4, 7-6 (7-1)
Diane King bt Caroline Wilcox (May 20) 6-4, 6-3
Pippa Wels bt Heather Symons (May 17) 6-2, 6-2
Pippa Wels bt Ruth Walker (May 14) 6-2, 6-2
Erna Rubens bt Pippa Wells (May 12) 6-1, 6-3 "The 2nd set was a close and after going with serve I broke Pip in the 6th game for 4-2 only for her to break back to 4-3. I then broke Pip again for 5-3 and was able to serve it out in a yet another tight deuce game. It was good fun," Erna

"The 2nd set was a close and after going with serve I broke Pip in the 6th game for 4-2 only for her to break back to 4-3. I then broke Pip again for 5-3 and was able to serve it out in a yet another tight deuce game. It was good fun," Erna

Diane King bt Catherine Rogers (April 14) 4-2 Catherine retired injured
Ruth Walker bt Heather Symons (May 5) 6-4, 6-7 (3-7), 6-4 "As you can see, it was an incredibly close match and could have gone either way. Heather was lovely to play against, made me feel very looked after (we played on her home court and she made sure that both of us had enough snacks etc), but it was quite a long slog!" Ruth

"As you can see, it was an incredibly close match and could have gone either way. Heather was lovely to play against, made me feel very looked after (we played on her home court and she made sure that both of us had enough snacks etc), but it was quite a long slog!" Ruth

Erna Rubens bt Ruth Walker (May 4) 6-1, 6-3 "Tough match despite the score. A lot of the games went to deuce and we had really long rallies. In the second set Ruth made a great comeback from 4-1 down to 4-3. I had to play well to close it out. She gets every ball back and can turn the rally around quickly!" Erna

"Tough match despite the score. A lot of the games went to deuce and we had really long rallies. In the second set Ruth made a great comeback from 4-1 down to 4-3. I had to play well to close it out. She gets every ball back and can turn the rally around quickly!" Erna

Gail Lederman bt Pippa Wels (May 2) 6-0, 6-2
Pippa Wels bt Catherine Rogers (April 20) 6-3, 6-3
Diane King bt Ruth Walker (Apr 30) 6-3, 6-4
Gail Lederman bt Heather Symons (April 28) 6-0, 6-2
Gail Lederman bt Ruth Walker (April 27) 6-0, 6-2
Gail Lederman bt Diane King (April 25) 2-6, 6-2, 6-4 "Very close match that lasted 2 3/4 hrs. We were both thoroughly exhausted by the end" Gail

"Very close match that lasted 2 3/4 hrs. We were both thoroughly exhausted by the end" Gail

Diane King bt Heather Symmons (April 21) 6-0, 6-0
Gail Lederman bt Erna Rubens (April 21) 2-6, 6-2, 7-5

"Tough match, very competitive and thoroughly exhausting. Thankfully (and somewhat surprisingly!), the weather cooperated and we were able to finish. Eight deuces in the first game set the tone for a gruelling contest, with the first two sets taking 1 1/2 hours to finish. Down 1-4 in the third set, the visitor (Gail) struggled back to make it 4-4. At the 2 1/2 hour mark, it was finally over. Great contest!" Gail

Diane King bt Pippa Wels (Apr 18) 6-0, 6-2
Caroline Wilcock bt Erna Rubens (Apr 16) 6-2, 7-6 (7-1) "Chilly evening, long match with many deuces and long rallies. Second set, neither of us could win our serve and close our games. Very enjoyable, but tiring. Glad it didn't go to a third set." Caroline

"Chilly evening, long match with many deuces and long rallies. Second set, neither of us could win our serve and close our games. Very enjoyable, but tiring. Glad it didn't go to a third set." Caroline

Erna Rubens bt Heather Symons (April 14) 6-3, 7-5 "The 2nd set was a real see-saw between us and Heather served for the 2nd set at 5-4 only to loose serve and be evens again at 5-5. I then held serve and broke to win the 2nd set and the match. That was a huge relief as we had playing for over 2 hours at that point and both of us were pretty tired," Erna

"The 2nd set was a real see-saw between us and Heather served for the 2nd set at 5-4 only to loose serve and be evens again at 5-5. I then held serve and broke to win the 2nd set and the match. That was a huge relief as we had playing for over 2 hours at that point and both of us were pretty tired," Erna

Gail Lederman bt Caroline Wilcock (April 6) 7-5, 6-2
Caroline Wilcock bt Catherine Rogers (April 3) 6-2, 6-2

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