Another wonderfully sunny day broke on the 6th June 2021 for the start of Los Elefantes Tournament, with all its players rising early in eager anticipation of winning the much sought after Trophy!
Introducing the Teams!
The Red Team
The Green Team
As we only had 12 players, the Round Robin fun began at the leisurely time of 10am, as we had intended to get through all the rounds before lunch at 13:00!.
Hahaha! After some pretty close matches we had ties amongst the Gents… between Marty & Mike in the Green Team for 1st and 2nd place, and between David M, Frank & Andy, in the Red Team, for 1st, 2nd and 3rd Place!
This was resolved for the Green Team by a simple singles tiebreaker between Mike & Marty, in which Marty won to take the 1st place spot.
Things however were not quite so easy for the Green Team, as each of the 3 Gents won their tiebreaks, which left us all a bit flummoxed on how to resolve this, we couldn’t even do it on games difference as one of the tie breaks went to 10-12. Finally, we decided that they had to play yet another singles match, the 1st to 5 by a single clear point won, and if they all won again, this time it could be done on points difference! Thankfully it didn’t come to that, and the result saw Frank taking 1st place, David 2nd and Andy 3rd.
Phew, now it was definitely time for lunch, a little later than intended!
Lunch took us back to the wonderful Middletons again, and everyone did us proud with some tasty creations!
So the results of the Robin Robin and Playoffs were as follows:
The Red Team :
No 1 Lady & Gent : Lynda & Frank
No 2 Lady & Gent : Chantal & David M
The Green Team :
No 1 Lady & Gent : Sjan & Marty
No 2 Lady & Gent : Trish & Mike
So after a swift juggle by the President, the Semi Finals Draw looked like this….
Each semi-final consisted of 1 set, with normal deuces being played. Bob and David worked hard as line judges on service, thank you (although I am not sure they would offer to do so again as their judgment was called into question on a few occasions, well old habits do die hard!)
Both matches were extremely hard fought by all, resulting in Marty & Lynda winning 6-4 against Trish & David, and Sjan & Frank 7-5 against Chantal & Mike, who at one time had a 5:2 lead, say no more!!!!
Suffice to say there was a lot of oohs and aahs, and nail biting coming from the spectators, eat your heart out Wimbledon!
Next up was the Plate Final… between Andy & Jane -v- Fran & Roger, again another brilliantly fought match, despite a kerfuffle going on in the background as I seemed to have mislaid the house keys, not normally critical, but as the trophies, prizes and all the alcohol needed for later was in the house, there was a bit of a panic!!
And the result… well I will let the pictures do the talking a little later on……..
And at last, the Final…… so without further ado I introduce ……
The Finalists
And what a riveting and nail-biting Final it was! Not sure the crowd had many nails left mind you…..Each game comprising of super long rallies going to deuce without sudden death, we were all exhausted just watching them!
And the result…… the score line was 6-4, but who to you ask…. just you wait and see…..
So with the afternoon mostly spent, we all wandered back exhausted to Lynda & David’s to delve into the rest of the food, and more importantly the bubbles that David did manage to successfully retrieve (after I found the keys in a secret compartment in my tennis racket bag, caused by some dodgy lining) & of course for the presentations to the Winners of Plate, the Runners-up and the Winners of the 2021 Los Elefantes Cup!
And your Winners of Los Elefantes Cup 2021 are.....
Sjan & Frank!
And that was that…. much fun was had by all and I am sure that all the participants and spectators would join me in thanking the Middletons for hosting the lunch and After Tournament Party, and for David (R), who not only organised the event, but spent most of the day, umpiring, line watching and running around ensuring everyone was replenished with their much needed chilled vino and beer!
Until the Next Time!
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