Christmas Eve at the Club

There was a good turnout for the Christmas Doubles and mince pie eating at the club on Christmas Eve. The regular members were joined by the "young" Seymour, Tomalin, Povey and Eadle.
The highlight was the grill competition when Colin Butler showed why he is club captain by hitting the grill not one, not two but three times in succession. After tumultous applause, this feat prompted Mark to have a go but not even the club professional could match up to Colin on Christmas Eve. It would have been churlish to disqualify Colin for not wearing white....

Happy Holidays to all. The club re-opens on 27th.

Sign up now for the Club Handicap Doubles, 17/18th Feb.

The Oratory progress to Semi-Finals of the Brodie Cup

The Oratory team beat the MCC 4/1 to go through to the semi-finals of the Brodie Cup where they will travel to either Cambridge or Hatfield. The Brodie Cup is the "Second Division" of the T&RA Inter-Club championship; a club/team event with 5 matches played in a specified order:
45+ Doubles: Andrew Woodward /Ian Glyn beat Rob Baker /Peter Dean 6/3 6/4
30+ Singles: Simon Booker beat David Blizzard 5/6 6/1 6/1
40+ Singles: David Fox lost to James Guest 3/6 5/6
50+ Singles: John Kennedy beat Paul Cattermull 6/1 6/0
35+ Doubles: Mike Box /Tom Povey beat Roger Pilgrim /John Beatty 6/1 1/6 6/2.
Many thanks to Mike for organising the match, the team and the food! For full Brodie Cup results see http://www.tennisandrackets.com/

Oratory win 7-0 v Hampton Court

In a great evening's tennis Oratory had an emphatic victory in the National league, Mark Eadle winning in straight sets and Bryn Sayers beating Ben Ronaldson 2 sets to love. Bryn's 1st set was an intriguing affair with some fabulous shotmaking from Ronaldson. However, Bryn showed the temperament and ability on pressure points that has carried him into the world's top 10 taking the set 6-5. To round off a perfect evening the Eadle/Sayers combination produced a brilliant display of power, volleying and control to take the doubles comfortably 8-3.
Messrs Box and Gordon shared the grill competition.

Oratory Old Boys beat Old Amplefordians

A successful start to the season for the Oratory Old Boys in their first ever match - beating Old Amplefordians 3-2 at home. With Taylor and Armstrong saving the day, levelling it out to 2-2. Leaving it to Herbert to seal the win with the last match of the day.

Oratory - Charlie Coupland, Dave Allaway, Jason Taylor, Ed Armstrong, Grahame Povey and Chris Herbert.

The next match is vs. Tonbridge on the 10th of Feb @ Queen's Club. - Chris Herbert

Knox Takes Championship

With a marvellous display of tennis Paul Knox took the Oratory Championship on Sunday. In spite of some spectauclarly hard forcing from Guy Barker that threatened to cause structural damage Paul never lost the initiative in the match winning in 2 sets. The tournament was enjoyed by all and we look forward to next year ... can young Mr Knox do it again.