TENNIS: Family Rules in Club Finals
HUGH SULLIVAN
The Amherst club tournament finals took place on the day of the summer solstice, Saturday 21 June. In mostly glorious sunshine, a full crowd watching from the central decking between Courts 1 and 4 enjoyed a free-flowing bar, ploughman’s and strawberry comestibles, and a schedule that had to accommodate three of the four singles finalists also competing in doubles contests. Beginning at 1pm the tennis continued unabated through the afternoon and evening until prizes were handed down some seven hours later.
Jada and Debi Ani after retaining their women’s doubles title
Quentin Soucek retained his men’s title with a confident demolition of younger opponent, Josh Craig, who had already justified his no.2 seeding by eliminating senior club coach Pete Farthing in a three-set semi-final four days before. “A win for my protégé is a win for me”, Farthing said.
Quentin then teamed up with son Orlando for the most enthralling match of the tournament in the men’s doubles final. Top seeds Jack Watson and Stefan Le Breuilly had breezed through previous rounds with their non-stop running, retrieving and all-round hustling style. They took the first set 6-2, and seemed to keep the upper hand in the second. But with a number of younger Soucek family members cheering on from the decking above, the father-and-son duo fought back, achieved 6-6 parity and won the set in a tie-break from 2-5 down. In the third set, their greater weight of shot from the back of the court and increasing volleying power eventually tipped the balance as they squeezed home 7-5.
Over on adjacent Court 4, last summer’s doubles champions mother-and-daughter Debi and Jada Ani were challenged by veteran pair Barbara Fentiman and Anita Pearce. The older team targeted Debi, less for her vulnerability than to avoid Jada’s fearsome array of groundstrokes on both wings, but again family values triumphed by a 6-1, 6-4 scoreline.
Women’s singles title-holder Nikki Crowhurst seemed to have the measure of Pearl Hare in a repeat of their 2024 final, taking a 5-1 lead in the first set as her booming ground-strokes and mercurial serve launched waves of attack. But Hare is a redoubtable competitor and, as errors crept into Crowhurst’s game, she turned the match round, winning the first set on a tie-break and the second 7-5 from 3-5 down.
Hare went on to secure a second championship victory, teaming up with Craig to win a comfortable victory in the mixed doubles over Watson – clearly a trifle weary after his epic men’s doubles match–and Karen Cunnington.
The whole fortnight of the championships was a triumph of club camaraderie–organised and delivered from beginning to end by volunteer members. Seventy-nine competitors (youngest aged 13, oldest 83) entered one or more of the five competitions; over a hundred matches were played, as first-round losers entered consolation events which peaked in a separate round of finals on the same day.
But in case the Amherst club might be thought too insular or self-regarding in this narrative, they are holding a quite different event tomorrow (Saturday) – a Dawn To Dusk charity tennis extravaganza in aid of St Michaels Hospice. From first court entry at 6am until fading light at 9pm, all seven club courts will be given over to coaching sessions, to cardio tennis and other challenges, and to open play, with suitable refreshments offered in the clubhouse. All proceeds will be donated to the hospice. Tickets (to book time slots) are offered free through Eventbrite, and players of all ages and abilities, with or without any connection to the club, are encouraged to come out to play–and donate.
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