* Club Handicap Singles Winners 2024/25 (Chetwood Trophy) 2026

Saturday morning saw Will St John Bacon from Canford winning both of his matches in the first group for 65-70 handicaps, and Ron Salde from Canford also going through to the quarter-finals on Sunday. In the first afternoon group of 55-65 handicaps, Julian Pike from Wellington won all three of his matches and went through along with George Calvocoressi from Oratory/Hardwick. Next, in the 45-55 handicap group, Merlin Cork from Bristol won all three of his matches (including two that were 6/0) and went through with Graeme Marks from MCC/Hampton Court.

On Sunday morning, we had the final group of three for 20-45 handicaps. Reuben Ard from Middlesex won both of his matches, and Mike Henman from Radley beat The Hyde's Jeremy Taylor in their match to go through on a better games won divided by games lost ratio by 0.33! 

In the first match of the quarter-finals, Will seemed more nervous than he had on the Saturday and struggled against George's variety of serves, losing 2/8. Julian pushed Ron into the corners, gaining him an 8/1 win before Merlin and Mike played the biggest handicap of the tournament with Merlin receiving 30 and Mike playing owe 30, 1 serve and banned tambour. There were some great restes with Merlin running everywhere to retrieve Mike's shots and Mike coping well with the handicap. The handicap proved a bit too much, with Merlin winning the match 8/5 as Mike hit the tambour at match point! Graeme kept up his consistency but it wasn't enough to match Reuben's speed as he lost 3/8.

The semi-finals saw Merlin owing for the first time as he played George. He got stuck at the hazard end and wasn't playing quite so well as he had against Mike, and George continued to serve well, gaining him a spot in the final with an 8/2 win. Next, Reuben played Julian off the same handicap he beat Mike with earlier (30 owe 30), but had injured his foot by this point and Julian was hitting his railroad to a good length and defending the grille well.

George got off to an excellent start in the final, going 6/1 up against Julian, until Julian made an incredible comeback to 6 all. They were then neck and neck with George keeping his nerve to eventually win 8/7 :).

Thank-you to the T&RA for sponsoring the tournament, and to the CEO Nick Orr for coming along to support and present the prizes. Thank-you also to all who entered and made the tournament what it was!