WEEKLY BLOW-BY-BLOW by Blair Carley, Tournament Director

Week 6 Tournament Wrap

The results are in folks and what a finish we had to the first (and, we really hope, the last)

So-Be-It Spring Team Singles Tournament-In-Slow-Motion. Heading into the final week, as luck would have it, the schedule had the top 2 teams in the standings, Team Blue and Team Yellow, facing each other for their remaining 7 matches. The other 7 matches had Team Green and Team White battling it out for third spot. That showdown started off with a bang on Sunday when Team White’s Scott Goddard came back from 4-1 down to take a point for his squad against Team Green’s Sandra Bradley and Team White’s Peter Parker triumphed in another marathon, this time squeaking past Team Green’s Jody Hawley 8-7 in a tie-breaker. That was enough to earn Team White 3rd overall. Team Blue lengthened its lead over Team Yellow taking 2 of 3 matches on Wednesday’s schedule. Blue’s Ken Bell went undefeated in the tournament after taking his match 8-4 over Yellow’s Nicky Arnoldus and Justene Tedder got another point for the Blues downing Yellow’s Wayne Wrigley. When Yellow’s Donna Wrigley got that one back downing Marianne Banman, it gave the Blues a 23.5 to 22 lead heading into the final matches on Friday. Yellow would have to win all 3 of their matches to take the championship. That drama brought out a few spectators and we opened up the big doors to allow the little crowd to see the action but at a distance. The evening kicked off with Allan Bruce picking up his fifth point for the Yellows with a win over Blue’s Flora Bovis narrowing the gap to just a half point. Next it was Yellow’s Diane Kray with an impressive 8-3 win over the indefatigable Dave Naphtali and the Yellows nosed ahead. That set the stage for the tournament finale and the deciding match featuring, wouldn’t you know it, a battle between mother and son. Blue’s Elle Wild definitely came out on top in the trash-talking contest but the match on the court saw Team Yellow’s Max Wild triumph, sealing the tournament overall victory for the Yellow squad.

Each Team Yellow team member receives, as a prize, a free 90 minute indoor court booking for the time and date of their choice valid until August 31st, 2021. (Just email SSTA.TennisDirector@shaw.ca when you’re ready to cash in your prize).

Congratulations to all the participants. We managed to have a great event despite the pesky covid restrictions with lots of laughter, great team spirit, some terrific tennis and the meeting of new friends and playing partners. Good Playing All!

Week 5 Tournament Wrap

The penultimate week of matches is now complete and there was no shortage of entertaining tennis again this time around. Happily, some of the best matches have been those that might be labelled “battles of the sexes” with our best Billie Jean Kings taking on our finest Bobby Riggs. Sunday’s version began with Randy Gray, who seems perennially, to be in tight matches, squeaking past wily Flora Bovis 8-6 in a spirited match involving both fierce competition and much laughter, the best kind. On Wednesday it was Flora’s other half Mike who came up against Nicky Arnoldus, fresh off her tie-break loss to the aforementioned Randy Gray. This time it was the Billie Jean King side who came out on top with Nicky outlasting Mike in a barnburner that left them both red-faced but happy. Friday there was a double-header with Marianne Banman hosting (literally, at her lovely court) David Youngson. That one went to Team Green’s David also 8-6. In the nightcap, Diane Kray was back in the saddle after a short post-vaccination hiatus. No soft match-up for her however as she drew Team White’s indefatigable Peter Parker. It was a match that would exhaust you just to watch it. In the end, Peter prevailed and picked up a well-earned point for his team…and the fellas.

We enter the final week of the event with Team Blue maintaining a slim lead over Team Yellow with Team White and Team Green close to each other and not far behind the leaders. As fate would have it, this week features matches pitting Team Blue players against Team Yellow opponents and Team White players against Team Green Opponents. We couldn’t ask for a better final week schedule.

Week 4 Tournament Wrap

Four weeks are in the books and 52 matches have been completed since we began 1 month ago. The title for top team is still very much up for grabs. Highlights this week included Sunday’s showdown between White Team’ Shelly Johnson and Blue Team’s Elle Wild. The rallies in this match were so long and gruelling that it’s the first match that didn’t go the distance with Shelly prevailing 6-4. After getting shut out on Sunday, Team Green made up ground in the standings on Wednesday when they won all 3 of their matches, the closest of which involved a tie-breaker between Randy Gray and Nicky Arnoldus. After a quick break at 7 games all (to clarify just how a tie-breaker is scored) they were back at it until Randy was just able to edge Nicky out 9-7 in a thrilling breaker for an 8-7 match win. The week finished with another epic battle between Dave Naphtali and Peter Parker that also needed a tie-breaker. Peter was back (too soon, likely) from an Achilles strain but gutted it out to pick up the point for Team White 7-5 in the tie-breaker. As for the overall standings, what with singles wear and tear, we’ve got 4 matches to reschedule but, going into Week 6, Team Yellow has just nosed ahead of Team Blue by half a point. Team Green and Team White are just behind also separated by just half a point. The play has been most spirited and the sense of camaraderie high. We’re entering the home stretch with just 2 weeks left on the schedule to decide the title. We start tomorrow with 6 new matches on the Sunday schedule.

Week 3 Tournament Wrap

Week 3 wrapped up last night with the final Blue Team vs Yellow Team and White Team vs
Green Team matches. That completes the first round of the round-robin format and means
we’re halfway through the tournament. The week kicked off with some excitement on Sunday.
Randy Gray picked up a much-needed point for Team Green with a tie-breaker win against Mike
Bovis. Then the evening finished with a second tie-breaker, this time with Justene Tedder just
squeaking past Donna Wrigley. Wednesday featured an injury-shortened schedule (singles is
taking a toll, it appears). Murray Tevlin remained undefeated with a hard-fought win against
previously undefeated Jean Southgate. Friday’s schedule began with a junior match between
young phenoms India Hayden and Max Wild. India’s attack was relentless but Max ran down
everything and triumphed 8-5. Then siblings Will and Caitlin McDermott squared off with
predictable fireworks, Will picking up the point for Team Green with an 8-4 win. The two moms
Elle Wild and Beth McDermott got their turn to face each other in another battle of the
undefeateds. Beth has dusted off some serious skills and kept the roll going for Team Yellow
with another win in that one. Overall, Team Blue maintains its very slim half-point lead over
Team Yellow. Team White and Team Green are neck and neck just a few points back.

Week 2 Tournament Wrap

We've wrapped up the second week of play in the So Be It Spring Team Singles Tournament-In-Slow-Motion and what a terrific week of matches it was. Sandra Bradley and Marianne Banman got it all started on Sunday with a tight, competitive match with Marianne eking out an 8-5 win for Team Blue. Then Allan Bruce kept his comeback from injury going with another convincing win for Team Yellow, this time over an improving Mike Bovis. We finished the weekend with a seesaw battle between Jean Southgate and Flora Bovis with Jean ultimately prevailing (8-6) in her second close match in as many weeks. She picks up a much-needed point for Team Green. The action continued with 4 more excellent matches on Wednesday night. Donna Wrigley had a terrific showing against Scott Goddard but, in the end, Scott was too much to handle and picked up an important point for Team White. Team Green got another point when Dave Youngson outlasted Justene Tedder 8-6 in a marathon of excellent play. And Ken Bell and Wayne Wrigley each kept their undefeated records with wins for Team Blue and Team Yellow respectively. New club pro Darran Wrighton must be thrilled with the performances of his juniors. Friday's matches saw Max Wild and India Hayden play with seasoned poise and pick up their second wins of the tournament. India's match with Mary Grove featured some spectacular points and included a game with 9 deuces. The match of the week had to be Friday's first match on Elliot between Peter Parker and Diane Kray. Peter managed to outlast Diane in the end but the match was highlighted by 5 rallies of more than 20 shots each.

Overall, Team Yellow made up a lot of ground this week. They trail the leaders, Team Blue, by just a half point with Team White in 3rd and Team Green right behind. This week's matches will pit Team Blue against Team Yellow in all 7 of their matches and Team White against Team Green in their 7 matches so the standings could get flipped on their heads. Week 3 starts with 6 promising contests tomorrow beginning at 4:00 pm. As usual, you'll find current standings and the week's schedule of matches on the club website.

Week 1 Tournament Wrap

We've completed an exciting and successful first week of the So Be It Spring Team Singles Tournament-In-Slow-Motion and 12 matches are in the books. The team standings have been posted to the website and will be updated every Saturday after the week's matches are completed Friday evenings.

The Blue Team is out to an early lead. Junior India Hayden got them started with a win in the first match of the tourney and newcomer Elle Wild completed the Blue Team's fine first week with a win in the last match on Friday. We had some really close matches with Blue Team's Marianne Banman edging out White Team's Erica Ross 8-6, while Green Team's Jean Southgate needed a tie-breaker to settle her match with Yellow Team's Nicky Arnoldus. We even had a tie (6-6) in an epic battle between Blue's Dave Naphtali and White's Peter Parker so they split the match point.

Week 2 starts right away tomorrow with 6 more matches on the schedule.