A Good Turnout for the Parent & Offspring Real Tennis Tournament

Twelve pairs entered this year’s  Oratory Real Tennis Club Parent and Offspring doubles tournament with players as young as 11 years old taking part, which was fantastic to see!

Four groups of three played over the Friday evening and Saturday morning, with the top pair in each group making it through to the semi-finals. The handicaps in all the qualifying groups were close and there were hotly contested matches in the round robin stages of the competition.

In the first semi-final Derek & Harry O’Sullivan were defeated by Tim & Dominic Tomalin, both pairs were playing very well on the day with the Tomalins taking a comprehensive early lead to 5-0. Harry soon got the hang of Dominic’s serve and the O’Sullivans got back in to the game wrestling back two games. At 5-2 the Tomalins secured match point, taking the set and the match 6-2. The second semi-final saw Ian & Christian Whittaker beat Colin and Jamie Butler. This was a fast paced game with all four players playing very well and some brilliant defending from both pairs. It was the Whittaker’s who came out as the winners taking their place in the final with a 6-3 victory.

This set up a brilliant final between the Whittakers and Tomalins. A tough handicap for the Whittakers seemed to galvanize Ian who made very few unforced errors and with the help of Christian, who towered over the net volleying anything within arms reach, the Tomalins were finding it tough to get the ball back. The Whittakers were eventually victorious with a 6-3 win to be crowned this years Parent & Offspring Champions.