The Tuxedo Club held its annual Gold
Racquet competition on Valentines weekend. The Tuxedo Park
suroundings are perfect for such a special time. Beautiful
landscape, lovely houses and great people made for the ideal
setting, but enough of the poetic ramble. Racquets and court tennis
were the main reason for the trip.
The singles draws started on Friday in
both court tennis and racquets. There were the usual players seeded
high both in racquets and tennis. Guy Devereux, looking for his 8th
straight racquets win was seeded number one in racquets and four in
tennis. Bart Sambrook, from Montreal, was the number two seed and
had met Devereux in the finals the last two times. Could this be the
time? After all, he had defeated Devereux a month ago in Boston at
the U.S. Amateur Championships.
There were 18 players in the racquets
draws and nine, count them, nine were from the Racquet Club of
Philadelphia. The RCOP have taken a page from the Detroit Racquet
Club book and brought over a young player to work with their players
and it is working. It was great to see so many players from the City
of Brotherly Love in Tuxedo. James Hill, fresh from Tonbridge, has
been busy during his brief stay. New players like Brian Owens
(Kendrick Cup finalist), John Thomas, Barney Tanfield and veterans
John Madzin, Ted Manges, Jeff Yager, Dick Tanfield and Lou Habina
all took part in the doubles and most played in the singles draw.
Way to go, Philly. All right, enough of the praise and on to the
weekend.
Friday’s play was good with maybe a
couple of upsets. Local boy, Scott Young, was upset by Dick Tanfield
in two straight close games. Dick’s son, Barney, stayed rather
calm (for Barney) and slid past James Madon (MRC) in two straight.
The rest of the singles draw went as planned with Hill, Duncan Odds
(Detroit Fellow), Devereux and Sambrook making the semis and
Devereux and Sambrook easily making the finals.
The final was played on Sunday at noon
before a standing room only crowd. They were two deep in the
standing area. Devereux and Sambrook put on a great show in game one
with the lead changing several times. In the end it was Devereux who
managed a 15-12 victory. Sambrook stormed back and easily won the
second game 15-4 and it looked like Boston all over again. But it
was not to be for Sambrook. Devereux could do no wrong in game three
and easily won 15-2 and was able to hold on and win number 8 with a
15-10 win in game four.
There was a RCOP player on every one of
the 8 doubles teams vying for the Spitoon Cup. There were two first
round matches leading up to the final that were worthy of mention.
The younger Tanfield and his partner and former Court Tennis
assistant pro and presently documentary movie maker, Nick Shumaker
(Detroit) took Scott Young and Jeff Yager to three games before
losing. The other close match was Greg Gross (Tuxedo) and Ted Manges
losing 17/15 and 15/12 to eventual champions John Madzin and Dick
Tanfield in a first round match. Madzin and Tanfield then hung on
and took care of Odds and Owens in 3 games while Yager and Young
managed a 2 game win over Hill and The Fork, Lou Habina. The final
was a great match. We had four very good club players on the court
and the action was excellent. The Y squad won the 1st game 15/10 and
looked in control, but the serving of lefty Madzin and the
incredible retrieving skills of partner Tanfield allowed the Philly
boys to even the match with a close 16/13 win. In the final more of
the same action from Philly and they held on and took the coveted
Spitoon with a 15/9 final game victory.
In the tennis side, Spike Willcocks
defeated Nigel Pendreigh in the singles final to capture his 3rd
straight Gold Racquet and Francine Royan (Tuxedo) and Matt Hyde
(Leamington, UK) took the Cuspidor Cup Monday afternoon.
