The weather people could have been wearing white robes and weilding scythes so apocalyptic was the forecast for Grafton Cup day…and it did rain and the wind bent the trees, but miraculously all 48 players turned up and the tennis was played and true Grafton grit was displayed; the round-robin stage produced some memorable moments: Simon Mills nearly cutting himself in half on the dividing fence, Ant North’s suicidal dive for a volley, Rachel’s match-winning cut dropshot that spun back over the net before Louise could touch it, not to mention Sutton and Mozley’s totally ineffectual Tennis Haka….after a BBQ break (hats off to Joe Brasse and Radek in absentia here), with the canopy straining at its moorings, the KO stage ensued in ever-soggier conditions but noone cared by this time…Patrick Lisoire and Morvern Scott emerged victorious, edging John Peck and Melanie Gibbs, depite John’s revelatory volleying, 10-8 in a tense final; the Barker Boys raised the Plate and young guns Tom Nicolson and Matt McInery the Saucer. It was a fairly bedraggled, windswept, chilled, but happy bunch of tennis players that recovered themselves in the bar afterwards and after a day like this anything’s possible at The Grafton! A big thankyou to Steve Grant for masterminding the event and to Sean Chestnutt for organising the squash that also took place- indoors sensibly…
