This year all the trophies were present from the winners of the previous year. But sadly one half from each of the trophy winners were missing from this year's line ups.
So both trophies would have a new pairing on them for 2019!
Jonathan Clay was missing his partner Andrew Dunning and was replaced by Olly Gale from Fedrigoni UK who kindly stepped into Pete Stevens shoes who was double booked.
John Lloyd Hagger was missing his partner Martin Dibsdale but although missed, was replaced by the lovely Stephanie Spurr, who was supposed to be one of two ladies this year. This was initially sad news until I learnt that the reason the second lady was missing was because she was appearing in the latter stages of a National Tennis tournament, phew, we all dodged one there!
No doubt this time next year I will again be mentioning the ongoing quarterly delay of Brexit which will still be dragging on and on and on.....
Once again blessed with the weather. The traditional "before" photo:
Very welcome Newbies this year included the aforementioned Stephanie and Olly along with a full Ricoh pair of Wesley Parks joining a previously appearing Sam Ayling along with Ted Weller pairing up with Eric Keane. The balance of the 9 pairs this year are seasoned pairings.
May I at this point say a thank you to Peter (Ace my man) Bothwick this year's President for not only attending the day but also for kindly presenting the trophies and with a few others sharing the photo duties.
Also major thank you to Fedrigoni UK who once again sponsored the gorgeous lunch. An equally grateful sponsoring of balls, courts, trophies and bar person from a combination of, The Navigator Company, Mitsubishi HiTec Paper UK, Premier Paper and IFS means that we are able to donate the sum of £360 to the P.I.C.T.
A big thank you to you all!
To the tennis...
The round robin blatantly proved one thing, that the much sought after wooden spoon would be a straight fight between the Brian Garson/David Kentish pairing and Sam Ayling/Wesley Perks. With 81 points up for grabs there was only three in it in the end. The Ricoh boys got 9 and the holders from 2018 retain their trophy with 6.
The Johnston Cup semi finals pitched John & Stephanie against Jonathan & Olly with the latter going through to the final. The other semi needed a volunteer from the Wooden Spoon pair to partner Andrew Veasey, as his partner Paul Williams was booked to be elsewhere, to play against the Ricoh pair.
Suffice it to say that the cream rose to the top in the final with Jonathan Clay and the very happy Olly Gale ensured that Jonathan still got his hands on silverware despite the missing Mr Dunning as they beat Mr Veasey and Mr Kentish in the final.
And to the Penman Trophy, which from the outcome of the round robin was always meant to be contested by Tony Wood/Steve Maher and last years and the year before and the year before that's losing finalists Matt Kidd and John Vic.
This was after Tony & Steve dismissed Eric & Ted in the semi final, and Matt & I managed to see off the wily Stephen Plaistowe & Barrie Farnsworth.
Well the final was agreed as best of three sets, which my legs did not agree with but the mind was willing and having lost the final for the last 3 years it was not gonna happen again. In a very tight and tense match we finally got our hands on those pewter jugs, thanks partner.
We still have the job of trying to retain and win against the Nemesis that are Andrew Dunning & Jonathan Clay who we hope will return as a pair again next year along with the lady who was featuring in that national tournament, must find out how she did?!
Once again thank you to all the players, sponsors and Northampton Lawn Tennis Club.