This afternoon Castlegarth hosted the start of the season Pauline Mutch tournament played in scorching temperatures and under the sun. An excellent and ideal 20 competed for the award with chairman Steve Jones kindly making up the number despite a strenuous workout with the men’s first team during the morning.

As usual there would be a shared trophy for the leading man and lady and competitors would play where possible mixed doubles for a 10 minute period before switching partners for a further 10 minutes play. Only completed games would count towards scorecards and each player completed four rounds in total.

Once again we witnessed some fantastic tennis on show and saw some real close battles played in a good spirit. There were a few red faces at the end and a few tans topped up along the way .

When the scores on the doors were collected, runner up for the ladies went to last season’s champion Rachel Butterworth who accumulated a respectable 20 points. However she was ultimately 5 behind the new champion Ann Jones with the evergreen veteran and long serving stalwart recording an amazing 25 points. Well done Ann and enjoy your year as top dog!

The men’s contest was closely fought with last week’s Mix in Tournament winner Art Page once again prominent at the top of the leader board. He secured 20 points to take the runners up berth but found Mike Triffitt with 23 just too good on the day and the club website manager retained the trophy he won last term.

Special thanks to Mike Butterworth who organised today’s event and did a great job managing the pairings whilst enjoying a drink soaking up the sun!

Thanks for another excellent turnout and we look forward to seeing many of you once more at our next competition which is the start of the month event for May which is actually scheduled for April 30^th. The following Sunday will see an open day incorporating the Great Tennis Weekend on May 7^th