Pangbourne Win the Yorkshire Cup in 2001
The Yorkshire Cup is a knock-out handicap tournament for all the clubs who play in the Newbury tennis leagues. A team of two men and two women play a set of men's doubles and a set of women's doubles and then four sets of mixed. The handicap takes the form of a number of games to be added to the score.
Pangbourne enter a team for the tournament each year and have won the cup twice before, in 1980 and in 1995, but in recent years have gone out in the first or second round.
This year our first round of the Yorkshire Cup was against Greenacre. We received 14 games in the handicap. The match was quite closely fought, but Pangbourne won by 50 to 21, including the handicap.
In the second round we met Woolton Hill, who had a couple of strong women playing, but thankfully our superior men enabled us to win the day. Our handicaps were equal, and the final score was 44-29.
In the semi-final we played BDH (Basingstoke District Hospital), a team who had a scary reputation and had comfortably beaten our men in the league. It proved to be a really good match, with 2 of the 6 sets going to tie-breaks. At the end of the match the total score was equal, 28 games a piece, however, we had the higher handicap, so we were through to the final!
The final took place on Sunday 2nd September, hosted by Cold Ash as they were last year's winners. It was also against Cold Ash, who were keen to win for a second year running. The match got off to a shaky start with confusion over start time, an injury during the warm up and then a spell of rain, but finally, less than 2 hours after the Cold Ash team had arrived we started playing!
The Cold Ash Team
The first round was the men’s and women’s doubles and 2 wins for Pangbourne, by a total of 4 games, redressed Cold Ash’s 4 game handicap advantage, so the match was now level. In the second round Pangbourne won one and lost the other, with a net gain of 3 games, so Pangbourne were in the lead, but only by a small margin.
The final round was again win one lose one, this time with a net loss of 1 game. This gave a final result of Pangbourne the winners by just 2 games! It was a really close match and it was only decided when the last set was won. A very fitting match for a tournament final and of course the best team won!
Pangbourne was represented by club chairman, Peter Lee, men’s captain Richard Rowe, women’s captain Sandra Wilkinson, and stalwart team member, Karin Walker.
The Pangbourne Team
The trophy was presented by Peter Smith, who gave it to the league back in the 60’s. He was able to explain how the tournament got its name – Peter didn’t want it to have his name, so, as he’s a Yorkshireman, he decided it should be the Yorkshire Cup.
Peter Smith presents the Trophy
Cold Ash had brought champagne with them so they could celebrate if they won, but as they didn’t they generously decided to share it with the Pangbourne team. A very fitting end to a friendly final.
Peter Lee accepting a glass of champagne, and Geoff Drewe, tournament organiser enjoying his.
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