AFTER a surprisingly long gap since the last Town and Gown Tennis Tournament in Autumn 2019, on a coolish Sunday, 22 March, a total of 24 players from Aberystwyth University Tennis Club (gown) and Aberystwyth Lawn Tennis Club (town) came together to play in a 'whist-drive' tournament.

Each participant played seven rounds of seven doubles mini-sets of seven games (a total of 49 games) including ‘sudden death’ deuce – where the receiving pair decides who will receive the serve – and the next point wins the game.

Players move around the courts after each mini-set changing partners – always with a ‘town’ player partnering a ‘gown’ player.

After completing seven mini-sets, each player tots up the number of games they have won. The four highest-scoring players from ‘town’ and ‘gown’ then compete in the semi-finals – with randomly drawn pairs.

The four highest scoring university players, with the number of games won shown, were: Theo Redgrave 43, Landon Ritzman 37, Oliver Young 35 and Tally Kaplan 27. The town top five were Eric Leja 32, Gururaj Biluj 28, and, surprisingly, a joint third with 27 games each for Clem Brown, James Laing and Steve Richards-Price. James gallantly stepped aside allowing Clem and Steve to go through into the semi-finals.

In the first semi-final Leja (town) and Young (gown) edged Biluj (town) and Kaplan (gown) 6-2. In the second, Richards-Price (town) and Landon (gown) beat Brown (town) and Landon (gown) 6-2.

The final started off closely with a score of 2-2, but Richards-Price and Redgrave took the next four games from Leja and Young to win 6-2 despite some hard-fought rallies. Interestingly Richards-Price was part of the winning pair in the previous Town & Gown Tournament. The next tournament will hopefully be this autumn – and not in seven years!

Players enjoyed lunch, coffee, tea and cake in the clubhouse adding a strong social element to this event and increasing the links between town and gown players.

Anyone interested in picking up a racket again or having a go at tennis can try a free coaching taster session on Saturdays: adults 1-2pm, kids 9-11 years old 2-3pm, 4-8 year olds 3-3:45pm, 9-15 year olds 3:45-4:45 – contact [email protected] or see the website www.clubspark.lta.org.uk/AberystwythLTC for more information.

If you’ve played before but are perhaps a bit rusty you can also try a free social tennis session on Tuesdays from 6pm and Saturdays from 2pm – just turn up at the courts on Queen’s Road or email [email protected] for more info.