News

I am delighted to announce that on 3^rd July PHTC received an award for our Extension from The Sussex Heritage Trust under the ‘Public & Community’ category.

 David Fortune and I were kindly invited by Savills to attend the Ceremony. The award was in the form of a plaque and certificate, presented to us by Lord Egremont in his capacity as President of the Trust. The plaque will be on display at the court in the dedans and the certificate is attached.

 This award is due to the enormous generosity and support of so many members, to whom I will be eternally grateful.

 Philip Robinson

Chairman

I am delighted to announce that David Bevan-Thomas has been appointed an Honorary Life Member.

This is in recognition of all the support that he has given the Club since he joined over 40 years ago and his impressive record in various national tournaments.

Many years ago he founded the Two Generations Tournament which is a highly popular family doubles tournament played each year just after Christmas. He himself regularly plays either with his son, Timothy, or with one of his grandsons. He says that even though he has made the finals twice he is still looking forward to his first win! However he has always made a point of presenting his Silver Trophy to the Winner since the tournament began.

Philip Robinson

Chairman

2^nd April 2019

SEACOURT TRIUMPH IN FIELD TROPHY 3/2

Seacourt’s youthful 2^nd pairing of William Flynn and Henry Liddington proved too strong and agile for Petworth’s experienced Charles Fuente and Andrew Page (6/2, 6/2) who struggled to find the necessary consistency to unsettle their opponents. Charlie Braham has been struggling with arthritis in his playing hand which was a hindrance against a domineering Luke Danby who strolled to a 6/1, 6/2 win in the 1^st singles. The 2^nd singles was one of the shortest on record when Seacourt’s Hugh latham pulled a fetlock after only three points in the first game thus gifting Petworth and Adam Dolman a lifeline. Several handicap points lower, Petworth’s Angus Williams (6/2, 6/2) was too strong in the 3^rd Singles for Lea Van der Zwalmen, who nonetheless showed why she is now the leading women’s amateur but she struggled to force winners against Angus whose retrieving was first class. So at 2/2 the match result depended on the 1^st doubles. Would we be treated to the first three setter of the day? Charles Danby and Mark McMurragh rushed into an early 3/0 lead but Petworth’s Bill Chambers and Steve Calder-Smith reduced the deficit to 2/3, but allowed their opponents to take the set with ease. The 2^nd set was a closer affair and at 5/3 up the Seacourt pair were guilty of relaxing and allowing Petworth back into the game at 5/5. However, Danby and McMurragh were at the service end in the final game which proved decisive, securing a well-deserved Field Trophy win. Photo of PHTC team

Report and results courtesy of Andrew Hamilton

• Second Doubles William Flynn & Henry Liddington bt Andrew Page & Charles Fuente 6/2 6/2
• First Singles Luke Danby bt Charlie Braham 6/1 6/2
• Second Singles Hugh Latham lost to Adam Dolman w/o
• Third Singles Lea Van der Zwalmen lost to Angus Williams 2/6 2/6
• First Doubles Charlie Danby & Mark McMurragh bt Bill Chambers & Steve Calder-Smith 6/2 6/5

The Secretary’s Cup is such a wonderful format with players of all handicaps being paired up at random.  This year we had handicaps ranging from 32 to 64. All of the group matches were incredibly close and the 5 pair play off group on the Sunday morning went down to the last match to decide a winner!

The first semi-final was between Kate Rowe & Charles O’Donnell against Martin Fox & Alex Maccallum.  Kate and Charles were just a little too strong for Martin and Alex who had fought through the play off group and won 6/3. The second semi-final was the experienced pairing of Andrew Falk & Robert Dolman against Tim Armstrong & Stuart Allison and it was very close all the way to 4 all and then Stuart and Tim served some very tight railroads to close it out 6 games to 4.

The final really looked like it could go either way and was incredibly close. 1/0,1/1,2/1,2/2,3/2,3/3 and so on all the way to 7 all but it was Kate & Charles who held their nerve to save three match points against them the game before to close it out 8 games to 7!

A big thank you to everyone that played and made it such a great weekend and a huge thanks to Andrew & Sally Falk for tremendous lunches all weekend.