ARC Winter Open 2021

By Marian Vinall

This was held at the end of October indoors and was a great success. 91 different people entered a variety of events and competition was fierce during the week. Both weekends and 4 evenings were used and competitors were aged from 15 upwards. This tournament will now be an annual event in the ARC Calendar so please reserve the date for next year! (Last week in October) 

Both the Singles Winners came from away and were aged 14 and 15 respectively. Well done to Shakira from Bournemouth and Sam from Malvern but congratulations also to locals Anoushka and Julian as Runners Up.

The Men’s Doubles provided a traditional late-night Final with Tom Vinall and Milo George coming through as Winners against  Andy Koval and Ian Leonard. The latter however made sure of a title by beating Mark Clayton and David Thresher in the Vets’ Men’s Doubles Final later in the week.

The Ladies Doubles was the first event of the week and won by Mother and Daughter Denise and Lottie Koval. Lottie went on to win the Mixed the following day with Matt Johns beating another family pair Monika and Julian Hayter.

The Final weekend was the turn of the Vets’ Ladies and Mixed. Again it was an all-ARC Final with Helen Beer and Lynn Wiseman Cooke beating Sara Milburn and Monika Hayter in a Championship tie-break. The Mixed Vets was the largest event of the week, and everyone felt the necessity to play as many tiebreaks as possible! After just under 8 hours of play, the Winners were Andrew and Ali Swinton from Ilfracombe defeating Gerald Sussex and Jenny Doidge.

It was a great week and lots of fun was had by everyone who entered. Next ARC Adult Tournament February 5th Men’s Singles then the usual weeklong in May with events for all categories including juniors. See you there.