Saturday 13th October 2007

Organisers: Jo Robinson and Chris Taylor

Ebbisham Sports Club held its third RACKETBALL HANDICAP SINGLES & PLATE CHAMPIONSHIPS and its second RACKETBALL DOUBLES & PLATE CHAMPIONSHIPS during August - October 2007, culminating in an enjoyable Finals Night with buffet.

There were 31 Ebbisham entrants in the HANDICAP SINGLES event, playing with handicaps ranging from -25 to +6, best of 3 games to 15, American scoring (point per rally). As well as the main Handicap competition, 1st round losers competed in a Plate event. The DOUBLES events were extended to best of 5 games this year as best of 3 had been too short last year.

The RACKETBALL DOUBLES CHAMPIONSHIPS was so successful last year that we extended it this year to include a DOUBLES PLATE event for 1st match losers. We adopted the proper Racketball Doubles rules where everyone has to hit the ball in strict rotation (unlike Squash Doubles) which makes for a fairer result in that opposition cannot play on the weaker players. There were 15 pairings this year (up from 10 last year).

In the PLATE DOUBLES, CHRIS JONES & TONY ROSE snatched the first game off new pairing, ANDY MAXTON & PAUL NICHOLLS (who’d never played Racketball before this!) but Andy and Paul piled on the pressure and came out on top by winning 3-1.

The DOUBLES FINAL was a hard-fought battle between strong and steady ALAN LAMOND & RICHARD GRIER and skilful and swift LEN GOSS & BARRY MARDEN. After losing the first game, Alan & Richard dug deep to win back the second but Len & Barry’s tactical play eventually led to a 3-1 win.

In the PLATE HANDICAP SINGLES, KEVIN MOORE had a 6 point advantage and played well against the experienced RICHARD GRIER who won the same event last year. Despite just losing the Doubles beforehand, Richard’s tenacity and placement came to his tired legs’ rescue and, although Kevin improved throughout the match, he couldn’t quite claim a game and went down 0-2 to Richard.

The HANDICAP SINGLES FINAL was a nail-biting affair, with BARRY MARDEN (last year’s Champion) defending his title with a 5 point deficit to JONATHAN NORRIS (who’d only started playing Racketball in last year’s Championships). There were plenty of contentious lets and stroke situations as each player battled for the T and the first two games went first to Jonathan on an unfortunate stroke point but Barry fighting back for the second. Barry ducked and dived (literally!) round the court, scraping his elbow, blood everywhere, desperately scrabbling along the floor to try and save matchpoint – but to no avail. Jonathan won 15-13 in the final game. It might have been a different story had Barry not just played in the Doubles but c’est la vie! The Finals matches were followed by a presentation of individual trophies and cups, with everyone tucking into various buffet selections provided by Club staff member, Teresa Joliffe. The evening ended sitting in front of the TV watching England snatch victory from France in the Rugby semi-final . A great way to finish the evening.