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Thursday night, 14 gentlemen (??) sat down for an intimate stag dinner. Fine food and drink was enjoyed by the few. Cigars and port came soon after on the 2nd floor terrace overlooking Park Avenue. It was an early night for most (early for a racquets weekend).

Three matches only were played on the Friday. The most exciting was the one between New Yorkers Peter Pell and Christopher Scott and Bostonians Nelson Russell and Todd Merrinoff. The format at the beginning of the draw was best of five games. This match took the full five games and in the end it was Boston advancing to the semis to face Willie Bristowe and Colorado import, Kendrick DeKoning. In the other Friday matches Jonathan Larken and Michael [Smash] McLernon easily disposed of Lou Habina and David Emil, while Guy Devereux and Robin Geffen had no trouble with Elihu Inselbuch and Giles Conway-Gordon.

Saturday play was delayed as the lights were timed to come on at 10:00 a.m.Matches had been planned to start at 9:00 but someone forgot to tell the timer. Anyway most of the Saturday matches became best of three games. There were two great quarter final matches during the day. Thorold Barker, working now in New York, partnered Richard Tanfield of Philadelphia and took on Morris Clothier and Mike Stevenson of New York. Clothier is a top ranked player in squash and court tennis and showed signs of potential greatness on the rackets court. But in the end, Barkers tenacity and powerful strokes along with Tanfields retrieving skills, were too much for the local team and Barker and Tanfield moved to the semis winning the match 3 games to nil. In the other quarter final, DeKonings lack of playing time (no courts in Colorado) coupled with Merrinoffs improving abilities and Russells steady serving were all that the Bostonians needed to advance to the semis. The match score was 2 games to 1. Bristowe played his usual great games but it was not enough. The semis went well and the two top seeded teams advanced to the 4:00 final. Larken and McLernon beat Barker and Tanfield, and Devereux and Geffen defeated the Boston pair.

The final was a straight 3 game victory for Larken and Smash as they took it to their opponnents right from the start. A scary moment took place in the third game when Devereuxs knee seemed to collapse for no reason. He finished the match but wisely decided to default his tennis match against young Barney Tanfield of Philly.

There was no dinner/dance this year but the club had a fine reception for players, wives and guests. There was great food and wonderful music but like the stag night it was an early night.

Thanks to new professional, Mike Gooding and club manager Bob Gressler and his staff for a magnificent time once again in the beautiful Park Avenue club.

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