Metro players scoop singles and doubles titles at NEVITC Tennis Tournament 2015.

15th – 17th May 2015.

Seven Metro members travelled to take part in the NEVITC, Newcastle, Tennis Tournament at The Northumberland Tennis Club. Metro was represented by Paul Ryb, Jan Reynolds, Jo and Alan Turnbull, Brenda Cassell, Lara Green and myself (Alan Whetherly).

46 players came from as far north as Glasgow and as far south as the Isle of Wight. The tournament was extremely well organised by the team from NEVITC and I would particularly like to thank Steve Trewick and Wendy Glasper from the organising committee for making the whole weekend run smoothly. All of the competitions were very competitive but played in a positive sportsmanlike spirit.

The tournament adopted two interesting innovations that seemed to work well, firstly we played on an orange size court with only a back line used, secondly the B2 and B3 sight categories were separated, which was generally well received.

On the results front Metro had a great deal of success.

Metro Results listed

• Jan Reynolds won the ladies’ singles’
• Jan Reynolds and Jo Turnbull won the ladies’ doubles’
• Paul Ryb won the mens’ B3 B4 singles.’
• Alan Wetherly. won the mens’ B2 singles.

I know we were thrilled with our achievements and rightly so in my opinion.

Although Paul and I lost the mens doubles final there was one lingering memory from that particular match. One of the rallies apparently lasted over 6 minutes and 140 shots were counted I do recall thinking that it was never ending but amazing fun to be part of. What a fabulous weekend and I for one was proud of our achievements!

– by Alan Whetherly
A special mention should be given to Brenda Cassell, who came from three love down in one of the ladies semis to take the North Easts’ top seed Rosie Pybus to an exciting 6 all draw. The match had to be taken to a tie break in which these ladies evenly matched each other point for point. Sadly there had to be a winner and Rosie just edged it in the end. However this was the closest and one of the most entertaining matches of the tournament

– by Jo Turnbull

NEVITC 2015 Was a fantastic tournament. Great turn out and well run.

For me, like many others, the interesting dynamic was the court size. Opting to only place a back line for the orange court and not narrow the courts, meant we had the length but not the difficulties of being too narrow.

Personally I found this an excellent compromise and more practical than the current rules allow for. The game was so much more enjoyable and the rallies longer. Steve Trewick and Wendy made a very compelling and practical case for interpreting the rules to allow for such court sizes.

Another important consideration was that the B2s and B3 category were split. Again this worked well for those participating from what I could gather.

– by Paul Ryb