News & Events
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Events Coming Up Soon (April 2011)
On the 17th April we have the Parent & Offspring Handicap Doubles event.
On the weekend of the 7th and 8th May we are holding the Goldblatt Cup Ladies Handicap Singles tournament.
During the summer months we will once again be holding our Summer League for teams of 2 players all played off handicap.
If you would like to enter any of these events or would like more information then contact the Pro's here
The Rosenthal Cup Doubles (March 2011)
The annual handicap doubles tournament for the Rosenthal Cup was held on the 26th March and once again there was a new name on the Trophy. The eventual winners were two players new to Hatfield, Alex Hyde and Chris Handley.
Alex has been playing for a number of years at Leamington and was the experienced player of the pair. Chris on the other hand has only been playing for about 6 months and is still learning all the time. They won through their group by winning all 3 of their matches. The closest of which was a 5/4 win over Paul News and Robin Aley, who finished second in the group courtesy of games ratio.
In the other group the two pairs to make it through to the semi-finals were both current holders of club handicap doubles titles. The group winners were the current holders of the Hangover Doubles, Steve and Sarah Sullivan and in second place were the current holders of this event Ros and John Hedges.
The semi-finals were two very different matches. In the first semi-final Sarah and Steve Sullivan won a very tight match 5/4 against Paul Newis and Robin Mace. While in the other semi-final Chris and Alex, who by this stage where looking in ominous form, won 6/0 against Ros and John. The score doesn't do the match justice but at the same time there was only one winner.
The final was a very close match with the Sullivans, still basking in the glow of their Hangover Doubles win in January, feeling very confident and recieving a reasonable start off handicap. Chris and Alex though were in superb form by this stage and had a good understanding of their roles and game plan and were not to be denied eventually winning 6/4.
Thanks as ever to Sarah Sullivan and Liz Fisher for organising the food.
The Billy Ross-Skinner (February 2011)
Hatfield House Tennis Club once again hosted the Billy Ross-Skinner British Mixed Doubles tournament, sponsored by Neptune Investment Management, over the weekend of the 4th, 5th and 6th of February and as with each of the previous years it was another closely fought, well contested event.
This year the event was limited to the best 12 ladies available paired up with 12 men of a suitable standard to give each pair an even chance of winning the title. The ladies involved included current world number 3 Karen Hird, world number 4 Freddie Adam and world number 8 Aldona Greenwood. The eventual winners saw two new names on the trophy as Johnny Beale (Bristol) and Sara Metherell (Queens) saw off the challenge of last years runner-up Louise Mercier (Hatfield) and her partner Andrew Petrie (Cambridge) 6/1 6/2 in what was sadly one of the few one-sided matches in the tournament.
Mercier and Petrie had come through some tough matches on their way to final. Most notably in their first round match against Nick Brodie (Hatfield) and Jo Sinclair (Queens), which they came through 6/5 3/6 6/5 and also their semi-final match which they won 6/4 3/6 6/4 against Viveca Stewart (Manchester) and Bill Fairbarns (Queens).
Beale and Metherell by contrast had won through to the final in fairly convincing fashion as they both seemed to get stronger and more confident as the event progressed. Their first 2 matches against Alex Garside (Seacourt) and Simon Mansfield (Queens) and Freddie Adam (Oxford) and Andrew Mountain (Manchester), they won dropping only 11 games in the process, although both matches were closer than the score suggests. Their toughest match throughout the event was undoubtedly their semi-final against Karen Hird (RTC) and Richard Seymour-Mead (Moreton Morrell), which they won 6/4 6/3 but the first set in particular could have gone either way. Hird and Seymour-Mead went down to the receiving end at 4/3 up in the first set and were looking good but a series of misjudged forces for the dedans and some tight serving and retrieving from their opponents meant that they failed to return to the service end before the set had slipped by 6/4.
As earlier stated the final sadly failed to live up to expectation as Petrie in particular failed to recapture the form that had got him and his partner to the final. Mercier was solid at the galleries but was no match for the brutal forcing and lightning fast retrieving of Beale and the extremely consistent support play from Metherell, who by the final had grown in confidence so much that she was faultless in all elements of the game. Petrie whose own forcing game had blitzed previous opponents found himself very much on the receiving end of Beale’s power game. Whether or not this put him off, we will never know but he certainly never recaptured his consistency from earlier rounds and made a number of unforced errors, in particularly at some crucial 40 all points. It’s debateable whether a fully on form Petrie could have stopped Beale and Metherell but it would certainly have made for a closer final.
Some of the other notable matches from the event include Stewart and Fairbarns winning a fantastic match against Catherine Walker (Hatfield) and multiple previous winner Anthony Clake (Oxford) 6/5 5/6 6/3, with both of the first 2 sets going to 40 all in the final game. Clake will undoubtedly rue the backhand sitter he put into the net on the final point of the first set that may well have seen them progress in the event.
Hird and Seymour-Mead also came through a fiercely contested battle against another previous winner Jill Newby (Holyport) and her partner Nick Jones (Seacourt) 2/6 6/4 6/3 in a match that ebbed and flowed both ways and kept the crowd guessing throughout.
Thanks must go to Viv Dawes for her organisation, ably assisted by Sheila Macintosh and Aldona Greenwood and to the Hatfield ladies, Liz Fisher, Gill Goddard and Sarah Sullivan for the wonderful food provided throughout the event.
The Hangover Doubles (January 2011)
We held our first Hangover Doubles event on Sunday 2nd of January and it proved to be a great success with 8 pairs taking part, some of whom had really got into the spirit with a cracking hangover to start the day.
The event as was held in 2 groups of 4 pairs each playing the other 3 pairs off handicap. At the end of the group stage the top 2 pairs in each group went through to the semi-finals.
As it turned out if you weren't related you didn't stand a chance. The first semi saw Will and Terry Richards take on Ros and John Hedges. Will Richards has not been on court for about 3 years and Terry has played about 3 times in that time but they resumed their Bandit status of old through the group stage but finally came unstuck against the Hedges 6/4 in a tight battle.
The second semi was between Steve and Sarah Sullivan and Jill and Arian Akers. Steve and Sarah had been ruthless in the group stage and continued that into their semi-final with the Akers sealing the win 6/3.
The final was tight all the way with the Hedges taking the first game and the Sullivans leveling things up to 3/3 when Steve and Sarah finally got their noses in front and never looked back, finally winning 6/4.
Big thanks to Sarah Sullivan for organising the event and to Ros and John Hedges for organising the food. A great day was had by all!
The Browning Cup December (December 2010)
Hatfield House Tennis Club hosted the Browning Cup this week for the first time for nearly 20 years. The event was won by Matt Ronaldson, the Assistant Professional at Middlesex University RTC, who beat Scott Blaber, from Cambridge University RTC by 6-1, 6-3 in a scintillating Final. Blaber must be commended for putting up a tremendous fight in this match and although it always looked as if Ronaldson would win, he was forced to play to the top of his game and the score could have been very much closer than it turned out to be.
The tournament is the International Real Tennis Professionals Association’s 
(IRTPA) premier handicap competition and within the accuracy of the handicap system, all players competed on equal terms. The event attracted a large field of up and coming players and a sprinkling of the world’s leading players. It had been hoped that Robert Fahey, the undisputed World Champion and probably the best player ever to take to the game, would compete, but sadly he was forced to withdraw on the morning of his first match.
In the Final on Friday evening, Ronaldson drew first blood, but then two 40 all games were shared to show how tight the match was going to be. Three close games followed, including two 40-30s and another 40 all game, which were all won by Ronaldson and he went on to take the set.6-1. In the second set, Blaber started well, but again Ronaldson just shaded a number of very close games to take a 4-1 lead. It looked to be over, but Blaber staged a recovery to get back to 3-5 before Ronaldson was able to win one more game for a 6-1, 6-3 win.
The pattern of the match was such that Ronaldson was able to play an all round
flamboyant match with accurate main wall forcing for the dedans, good short chases into the corners and the occasional shot into the grille. In contrast Blaber, who had a 7 point handicap advantage was scuttling about the court like a terrier, retrieving relentlessly - to a surprisingly good length - and adding weight whenever circumstances allowed
On Friday, the Browning Cup matches were interspersed with a Pro-Am tournament in which six Amateurs teamed up with Professionals no longer in contention for the main event. The six pairs played a round-robin competition with matches over 20 minutes or the first pair to win 5 games with the top two pairs playing the Final. Ged Eden and Richard East (Hampton Court) beat Ricardo Smith and James Gould (Melbourne) to win the Final.
The Club was grateful to its main sponsor Champagne Philippe Brugnon, together with others who hosted Champagne, wine and sherry tasting evenings during the week.
Summer League Result (October 2010)
We have been running our very successful Summer League team event this year with a slight variation in the format. This year after the initial group event we had the top 2 teams from each division going through to a Super Six Group Stage.
These teams then played off for the right to contest the final.
At the end of the Super Six stage it was left for David and Will Harris to take on Andrew Nicholas and John Longhurst in the final. It proved to be a classic with Andrew Nicholas beating Will Harris in the opening singles match 8/3. David Harris then managed to take the match to a deciding doubles by beating John Longhurst 8/6. The doubles was tight all the way through but finally the Harris' managed to complete a superb victory by winning the final 8/7. It was a great night and we look forward to holding the event again next summer.
Jon & Will Off To America (June 2010)
The Committee offer their best wishes to Jon and Will as they both head off to Newport Rhode Island to take part in the Us Pro Singles. This mean the Club will be without a Professional for a few days but this coincides with the court closing for a few days for repairs to the lights. Andy Chinneck will also be covering for a few days, so take advantage and get along for a lesson with Andy.
Finals Day Report (May 2010)
A full report of all matches and results can now be seen on the Domestic Tournaments page of our website