MICHAEL JONES TROPHY
Club Handicap Singles
3rd - 9th June 2024
There can be only one.
We had a full entry of 32 players and after a week of fierce qualifying boxes from dawn till dusk, 16 players were drawn against each other on a sunny Sunday 9th June in the Finals Day of the club handicap singles tournament.
FIRST SIXTEEN MATCHES - one set to 5
60.9 Jonny Davies v Gavin Wood 68.9
79.7 Hal Finch v Alistair Roy 85.0
68.1 Giles Watkins v Archie Finch 76.9
88.6 Matthew Galvin v Ben Brown 65.4
61.8 Will Kenyon v Michael Edwardes 49.3
66.9 Zoltan Kozma v Eleanor Beale 70.6
60.8 Merlin Cork v Paul Dedman 76.0
87.7 James Galvin v Paul Wilson 65.1
Due to last minute issues, the first two matches were missing opponents - this led to fairly easy victories for both Gavin Wood and Alistair Roy.
The remaining matches set the tone for the rest of the day with the majority of games going to the wire.
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QUARTER FINALS – one set to 5
G Wood v A Roy
G Watkins v B Brown
W Kenyon v Z Kozma
M Cork v J Galvin
More fantastic match ups produced more great tennis and close games with some excellent examples of how to cope with large handicap differences.
But as we sprinted into the afternoon, we had found our semi-finalists.
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SEMI FINALS – one set to 6
G Wood v B Brown
M Cork v Z Kozma
Two knife-edge semi-finals did not fail to disappoint.
Gavin Wood took a commanding 4/0 lead in the first match and all seemed well. However young Ben Brown must be applauded for staying calm and not giving up.
He managed to bring the match back to 5/5.
A fantastic first semi-final saw Ben Brown taking the deciding game and leaving Gavin wondering what might have been.
The second match saw student Merlin Cork taking on Zoltan Kozma.
Another cracking semi-final saw the match drawn at four games all.
But Merlin’s fantastic retrieving ability and endless energy was too much for a bandaged-up Zoltan as the student won 6/4.
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THE FINAL – one set to 6
Ben Brown v Merlin Cork
A nod to our younger members again as the final saw young Ben Brown (65.4) – the defending champion – take on student Merlin Cork (60.8) – a recent addition here at BRTC.
A full Dedans witnessed some superb quality and drama in The Michael Jones Trophy Final.
Merlin was up, then Ben was up.
Then it was 5 /5.
This was the sixth match today alone that needed a ‘one game wins it all’ decider!
It could have gone either way, but the point that mattered most was won by Merlin Cork, taking the match 6/5.
32 had become 1
Congratulations to young Merlin – his name now on the BRTC walls for all of time.
Thank you to all who competed and made the whole tournament an overwhelming success culminating with a brilliant Finals Day.
Cheers,
Ben
P.S. Please note the lack of Wizard references #restraint #fallenatthefinalhurdle