RFA National Doubles Championship

The tournament began on a sunny but cold Saturday morning at Alleyn's School. Eleven pairs entered, with an average age of around 25, significantly lower than the 35 of 2003. The three preliminary matches were generally close-fought affairs with the all-Old Pauline tie between Aquilina/Tilston and Parker/Thomas the pick of the bunch, and the former, slightly more experienced pair went through in three.

The quarter-finals proved to be comfortable matches for the top four seeds, and all were victorious in straight games. By contrast, the semis were poles apart. In the bottom half of the draw, Ellison – with his new partner Brooks – finally overcame former champions Buchanan and Perry at his sixth attempt in two short games. The other semi was a much closer and unpredictable battle, in which defending champions Grant and Tristao took the first game from another new pairing – last year's runner up Dean and new younger partner Kay – in almost empyrean fashion, albeit aided by the opposition's consternation in the level of grip afforded by the floor. Taking to a new court, a new velitation ensued, Dean and Kay found their rhythm and took the second game with pace and accuracy. This they continued in the early part of the deciding game, building a slight lead, but a certain lassitude overtook them and the strength and experience of the defending champions was decisive.

Sunday morning and the final. To those not in the know, this final is generally witnessed by the organiser, one or two committee members and a girlfriend or two (of different players, that is). This year was not much of an exception to the rule apart from the inclusion of a dog, so to be precise there were four men, two women and a dog. All witnessed (although I'm not sure the dog was paying that much attention, or indeed could see over the back wall!) an excellent first game from the service rally to the last.

Closely fought early rallies led to a 2-1 lead for the challengers after close to 10 minutes' play, but the champions then faltered, making a string of errors to extend that to 7-1, but with a brace of winners the tide turned and now it was the challengers' turn to lose concentration and the champs pulled back to 7-8. Now there were winners and errors (forced and unforced) from both pairs, but steadily the defending champs edged ahead to take it to 14-11 and what seemed an inevitable first-game win, but the challengers were not inclined to cede so easily, and after fighting off three game points, took the opening game 16-14. This proved to be the decisive point of the match, Brooks and Ellison again took an early lead in the second game and, after a short fightback, Grant and Tristao rapidly capitulated 15-4.

For those people craving a few more stats, the scorer of the final undertook a winners/errors count for all four players. The possibly somewhat harsh criterion for an error was that any ball struck before dying should be returned. As doubles pairs live and die as a team, the scores are presented for each pair: First game: Grant/Tristao 18 winners, 20 errors; Brooks/Ellison 15 winners, 16 errors. Second game: G/T 4 winners, 15 errors; B/E 4 winners, 5 errors. (Individual scores may be revealed at a later date unless certain payments are received). Although on the surface the bias leans towards more errors than winners struck, in fact most of these were 'forced' errors and in general there was a great deal of attacking and counter-attacking play.

The plate was contested by six pairs who lost in the first and second rounds. It was won by the scratch pair of Gareth Price and James Marshall (their original partners both sustained injuries) who beat Theo Parker and Francis Thomas in an engrossing three-game final, winning 12-10 in the third having saved a match point.

My thanks to Alleyn's School and all the players for making a thoroughly enjoyable weekend.