Over the last weekend we have seen an array of impressive events, the best of which being the Racquets. With two busy draws, the invitational and the paired.
From the opening the games were exciting, in the invitational all the games ending with a 2/1 final score bar one match, with many of the games going to set. In the semi-final a captivating game of Sacks/Manton-Jones vs Stout/Bauron ended with a 15/10, 15/4 result. On the other side of the draw we had Cawston (the current world champion)/ Beam (definitely not the world champion) vs Fisher/Medlow. This game was another nail biter ending 15/11 10/15 15/8. Alas, the Finals day rolled around and after a long night the game of the tournament was upon us, Cawston stepping up to the mark and Beam right there with him, in a heated flurry there could only be one victor, and with a decisive win of 2/0 Beam and Cawston claimed the title over Sacks and Manton-Jones.
The paired draw was healthily subscribed with 19 pairs, the standard being equally high. In the initial stages some convincing wins brought the first round winners swiftly into the later rounds. As the matches went on the level only improving with Mr. Oberbeck and Mr. Medlow narrowly overcoming the fierce pair of Mr. Laukitis and Mr. Scott in one of the most exciting matches of the weekend. The other top semi final place was claimed by Mr. Goneos and Mr. Huo after a battle ending in an 18/13 result squeezing them through. On the bottom half, Mr. McCall and Mr. Rossiter claimed the win in a tough fought 2/1 match ending 17/15 vs the Montreal contingent. Below this we saw Mr. Sotir and Mr. Howard creep into the semis. After such an exciting Saturday we had an equally exciting Sunday lined up which was Mr. Medlow and Mr. Oberbeck in the final against Mr. Sotir and Mr. Howard. As the final closed in and the gallery filled up we saw a convincing first game win from Medlow and Oberbeck of 15/6. However this spurred on Howard and Sotir to take it to a higher gear and led them to claiming the next two games 15/6, 15/9.
