Aberystwyth tennis tournament honours go to Keen and Brown

ABERYSTWYTH Tennis Club held its annual ‘Whist Drive’ Tournament recently with each participant playing seven rounds of seven doubles mini-sets of seven games (a total of 49 games) including ‘sudden death’ deuce – where the receiving pair decides who will receive the serve – and the next point wins the game.

Players move around the courts after each mini-set changing partners – always with a female player partnering a male player. After completing seven mini-sets, each player tots up the number of games they have won. The four highest-scoring female and four highest-scoring male players then compete in the semi-finals and then finals – with randomly drawn mixed pairs.

The four highest scoring female players, with the number of games won shown, were: Kay Ballinger (Aberaeron LTC) 32, June Blake 31, Clem Brown 30, with Vicky Chism and Sandy Rees (Aberaeron LTC) both winning 28 – these two had to fight this out with 10-point championship tiebreak, which Chism won to enter the semi-finals.

The top male players were Andrew Keen (Shropshire) 38, Arthur Finney (a 14-year-old rising talent) and Steve Richards-Price with 33, and Marco Arkesteijn 30. Incidentally, Finney was the youngest player to have reached the semi-finals in recent memory and also played for the Men’s Team in the South Wales Men’s Doubles League this year.

In the first semi-final Chism and Arkesteijn edged Ballinger and Richards-Price 6-3. In the second, Brown and Keen overcame Blake and Finney 6-3.

In the final, Brown and Keen played a near-perfect set to take the trophy 6-1 against Chism and Arkesteijn, despite some close games and hard-fought rallies. Keen, originally from Aberystwyth and now living in Shropshire, first won this tournament as a teenager over 30 years ago and makes a welcome return almost every year to the Aber Tournament.

Players enjoyed lunch, coffee, tea and cake in the clubhouse adding the usual strong social element to this event.

Anyone interested in picking up a racket again or having a go at tennis can try a free coaching taster session on Saturdays: adults 1-2pm, kids 9-11 years old 2-3pm, 4-8 year olds 3-3:45pm, 9-15 year olds 3:45-4:45 – contact [email protected] or see their website www.clubspark.lta.org.uk/AberystwythLTC for more information.

If you’ve played before and can serve reliably and hold a rally, but are perhaps a bit rusty, you can also try a free social tennis session on Tuesdays from 6pm and Saturdays from 2pm – just turn up at the courts on Queen’s Road or email [email protected] for more info.

The club also enters men’s and ladies’ teams in South Wales tennis leagues – contact [email protected] or [email protected] for more information.