Minehead Tennis Club, West Somerset, England autumn Open Mixed tournament

Sandwiched between thunder storms on Saturday night and the aches I feel this Monday morning was the autumn mixed doubles Minehead Lawn Tennis Club, West Somerset, England open tennis tournament :-)

I had been missing out on club night tennis play in recent weeks due to being out and about throughout the West of England in West Country counties of Devon and Cornwall ( UK and West Country Musicians ) and my Prince Warrior (TM) tennis rackets were really itching to play some tennis.

So when one of the finer female players in Minehead Tennis Club had asked me to be her partner, I said 'yes' immediately and enthusiastically!

The quality of play from visitors from other clubs and from Minehead tennis Club members was absolutely outstanding and the organisation of the tournament was superb.

There were four boxes of players in the morning and a further four in the afternoon. Each couple in a box played the other pairs in their box. Finals were played between the winners of the two higher boxes and also of the two lower boxes so players of all levels got a chance at the limelight. One set of six games was played for each rubber with a sudden death tie break at deuce. People brought their own lunches but tea was provided by the Minehead Tennis Club members.

One particularly nice aspect was that it provided an opportunity to see the spouses of some little seen Minehead Tennis Club members. Although there are always the constraints of babysitting, with one partner often staying home, it will be great hopefully to see more of these players in coming months.

It was also wonderful to see many returning faces from other clubs from far and wide giving Minehead Club players a chance to compete with players of close to or County standard.

Despite the thunder storms of the preceding night, the tennis all weather courts performed well with the exception of one which was taken out of use because of a degree of slipperiness in the shadier parts of it's outer edges.

The weather was wonderfully warm with large periods of sunshine which meant we could largely sit out on the grass in front of the club house while we waited for our next rubber and the few showers didn't stop play.

Although play was always competitive, the day passed with much friendly social and tennis related chat between the participants.

Kudos to Minehead Tennis Club and it's organisers for a great tournament. As a Minehead Tennis club member, I will look forward to it and be back next year.

How did I and my partner do? We thought we did well and were one rubber short of getting into the lower boxes final. But over the day we lost to many really good players and almost every rubber was a pleasure which is what it is all about.




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Minehead Tennis Club, club tennis, tennis tournament, mixed tennis tournament, doubles tennis tournament, tennis courts

Devon, Somerset, Cornwall, West Somerset, West Country, West of England, England, UK