Sidford Tennis Club held a most successful ‘Touch Tennis’ tournament, writes Darryl Bass.

Don’t be alarmed – touch tennis does not contravene the Government’s Covid restrictions!

The ‘touch’ refers to the feel and placement of a lighter foam ball played on a smaller mini-tennis sized court with smaller rackets. Recently Sidford Tennis club hosted it’s first club tournament since lockdown and it’s first ever Touch Tennis tournament.

Set amid some glorious sunny weather, the event proved very successful with everyone enjoying the competitive edge and having to adjust their tactics to develop the ‘touch’. Three competitions were run on the day for the juniors, ladies and men.

The ladies and men were each split into two groups of four players with the winners of each group meeting in the final.

The junior ‘round robin’ event was won by Lettice who just pipped her nearest rival following some very close matches with the other players.

The ladies’ final was competed by two newcomers to the club this year and was won by Helen Terry who adapted her game well to beat Dawn Chapman.

The men’s final proved to be a very close match with Jed Ionov-Flint just beating Gregg Shipp in the final through a combination of pace, power and touch.

Both the ladies and men’s groups provided a number of very close, entertaining and competitive matches with some very fine margins of skill and judgement being shown on the day.

Our thanks go to all those who took part on the day and helped make it a memorable occasion.

Special thanks go to LTA Coach Katie Wiltshire for her superb organisational skills in both preparing the event and then running it on the day.

Soon we will be looking to run our annual charity event and we definitely be planning more Touch Tennis in the future.

If you would like more information about the club or would like to come along and give it a go, then please email daryl.bass@harmonic.co.uk or willpmboyd@hotmail.com