[b1-tennis] NVITC 2014
- From: Nikhil Nair <nnair@xxxxxxxxx>
- To: b1-tennis@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
- Date: Mon, 6 Oct 2014 17:37:16 +0100 (BST)
Hi all,
Just a quick update on the B1 section of this weekend's tournament.
We had a great turn-out: 11 B1 players (one player, Rebecca King, didn't
make it).
The singles was a knock-out format, with 6 players playing in a
qualification round to reduce the numbers to 8, followed by
quarter-finals.
The final was between Kelly Cronin and I. It was very, very tight, but
Kelly produced a fantastic, deep return at 5-5 in the tie-break (the first
bounce was about a yard in front of me, before it hit my body!), to take
the mini-break and set up championship point on her serve, which she
successfully served out. And all that despite feeling unwell during the
tournament - someone told me afterwards that she had gone quite red, and
looked like she was about to be sick! So, a fantastic performance from
her, and a well-deserved gold.
The 3rd place play-off was between Lara Green and Dawn Fradgley, who's from
the Isle of Wight and is completely new to tennis. Dawn was serving
amazingly consistently when I saw her in my semi-final against her (I only
won that tie-break 13-11!), and she went on to take 3rd place.
The singles happened on the Saturday, while the B1/sighted doubles was on
the Sunday, and used a different format: 3 single-tie-break sets, the first
two of which were sudden death if they reached 6-6. In addition, it was
done in three separate groups - a main draw consisting of 2 3-pair groups,
with the winner of each round-robin playing each other in the final; and a
plate competition with a round-robin of 4 pairs.
Once again, I came up against Kelly in the final: she was partnered with
Andy Crockett, and I with Jill King. Kelly and Andy won that one
comfortably, in straight sets (on sudden death in the first, and by a
single mini-break in the second).
So, that's the bare bones of it. There will be plenty of issues to discuss
following this tournament, both positive and negative, but it would
probably be best to wait until a few of the players from the tournament
have joined the list.
On that note, while I didn't attempt to give out detailed instructions for
joining this list during the weekend (with most people not having
note-takers etc. with them...), I did make a note of which club the players
were from, and made sure I had a way to get information to them afterwards.
I managed to cover all bar 2 in that way, or by exchanging contact details;
but Hugh Stirling (of the Tennis Foundation) is happy to pass on
information for us, so there will be no problem getting the details to all
of them.
Incidentally, I'd be interested to hear your thoughts on just how many B1s
there are playing regularly now - in this country, that is. I think there
must be at least 20, but there could be more than that.
Cheers,
N.
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