Finally…Unprecedented Success At Tennis, The Queen’s Club, 11 May & 27 May 2022

Lowenthal Trophy 2022 Finalistas and officials: Simon Marshall, Yuri Kugler, Nick Browne, Carl Snitcher, Josh Farrall, Sebastian Wood, Ian Harris

The words tournament and success do not normally go together in the context of me playing sport. In fairness, until I started playing real tennis I hadn’t actually participated in a sporting tournament for some 40 years.

Albeit a tiny sample, but getting to semi-finals seemed to be my limit. In 1975, my youthful sporting annus mirabilis, I got that far in the Alleyn’s Lower School Fives Tournament.

An Uneventful Day Playing Fives, 9 June 1975

I even have a trophy for my quarter-final success, for reasons “explained” in the above piece, if you fancy a laugh.

Roll the clock forward a mere 44+ years and I did it again, semi-final-wise, at real tennis, during an autumnal feast of real tennis, described in this piece – click here or below:

Loadsa Real Tennis, Some Of It Me Playing At Lord’s, Then Some Really Real Tennis At Queen’s, 20 to 23 November 2019

But now, I am able to report going two better than semi-final defeat.

In the Dedanists’ Society Lowenthal Trophy event at Queen’s, partnering Sebastian Wood, I not only managed to get to a final for the first time…

…we went on to win the trophy.

Let us not dwell on the details of how handicap doubles tournaments using vicious sliding handicaps work.

In particular, let us not dwell on how close we came to losing the second of our round robin matches, which we won on a single point decider after creeping from behind to four-games-all.

Played five, won five. Landed the trophy.

I like doubles. Clergé The Younger, the first acknowledged world champion at tennis, primarily played doubles. Some say I bear a passing resemblance to him, you know.

But I’m in danger of letting this fleeting success go to my head, so let us move on.

Dedanists v Jesters At Queen’s, 27 May 2022

The Dedanists’ Society is a private club for real tennis enthusiasts, dedicated to raising funds for the preservation of the game. The Jesters Club is an invitation only club for enthusiasts of court sports such as real tennis, squash, Rugby fives, Eton Fives and padel. Coincidentally, given the origins of my addiction to such games (rugby fives at Alleyn’s), the very first Jesters fixture, in December 1928, was a rugby fives match against The Alleyn Old Boys.

Anyway, this fixture presented me with an opportunity, just a couple of weeks later, to return to the scene of the Lowenthal Trophy crime and enjoy a friendly fixture and another fine dinner at Queen’s.

On this occasion I got a chance to resume my partnership with James McDermott:

We prevailed, just about, in our rubber, early in the event, before settling down to enjoying the atmosphere at Queen’s, taking some tea and watching some real tennis.

The flagship match of the event was the father & son combination, Richard & Bertie Vallatt vs Alex Brodie and Andy Keeley. It was a splendid watch for us lesser amateurs and a bit of a leveller for me.

Watching Bertie play reminded me that, on one of my first visits to the Queen’s Club to play real tennis, Bertie thrashed me convincingly (6-0, 6-2) in 2018, when he was aged 12.

Sobering.

But hey, I am one of the holders of The 2022 Lowenthal Trophy. No-one can take that away from me.