Once again we have enjoyed a fantastic season. Before I go through some of the things we have achieved I must pay tribute to our Director of Coaching, Chris Mulligan, whose team is pivotal in anything that we achieve as members. Tom Brocklehurst, Andy Davies, Luke Hobbins and our apprentices, Scott Delday, Ben Haigh, Roald Myers and Luke Spencer have been able to offer high quality coaching to all of our juniors each Saturday and Chris and Tom have extended this to the adults during the Summer. I should also like to thank Dot MacFarlane who has contributed to the junior sessions on a couple of occasions and we hope will continue to do so in the future.
Currently, the club has 51 youngsters attending Saturday coaching in 5 sessions at 2 venues. The club has a waiting list and will give priority to those willing to commit regularly to the Saturday sessions. We are pleased to have recruited a number of girls in recent months as we, along with our County, are desperately short of them.
Again, before going through our roll of honour may I emphasise that those individuals who have their names mentioned owe a tremendous debt to all members. Without the competition and friendships that exist in our club those achievements would be fewer.
I also want to mention another highlight of the season when our former member, Kelly Sibley, the reigning England Ladies’ Champion, agreed to become our President. The celebratory meal at the Ruby restaurant was one which will live in the memories of all who attended.
The roll of honour!!
The County Championships came at the beginning of the season and we came away with 5 titles and two runners-up spots. Deepak and Chris became our first Senior champions for many years.
Men’s Doubles Champions: Deepak Chandrababu and Chris Mulligan
Under 15 Girls’ Champion: Olivia Fletcher
Under 13 Boys’ Champion: Timmy Cooper
Under 13 Girls’ Champion: Olivia Fletcher
Under 11 Boys’ Champion: Andrew McIlvaney
Under 13 Boys’ Runner-up: Andrew McIlvaney
Under 11 Boys’ Runner-up: Tom Fletcher
We were delighted when Olivia was selected to represent the County Junior team not long afterwards. She made a winning debut.
At the end of the season we had a very successful Leamington Championships amassing 9 titles and 10 runners-up spots.
Ladies’ Doubles Champion: Julie Richardson
Veteran Ladies’ Singles Champion: Julie Richardson
Under 13 Boys’ Champion: Timmy Cooper
Under 13 Girls’ Champion: Olivia Fletcher
Under 11 Boys’ Champion: Andrew McIlvaney
Under 11 Girls’ Champion: Jenny Singleton
Grade 4 Singles Champion: Solomon Hayes
Grade 5 Singles Champion: Charlie Snelson
Handicap Champion: Lee Dorning
Ladies’ Singles Runner-up: Julie Richardson
Ladies’ Doubles Runners-up: Lleryn Brocklehurst and Caroline Nicholls
Mixed Doubles Runner-up: Julie Richardson
Under 15 Boys’ Runner-up: Solomon Hayes
Under 13 Girls’ Runner-up: Sophie Bethell
Under 11 Boys’ Runner-up: Tom Fletcher
Under 11 Girls’ Runner-up: Molly-Ann Morton
Handicap Runner-up: Solomon Hayes
Parent/child doubles Runner-up: Tom Fletcher
We were also delighted that Cherry Matthews won the Coventry Ladies Singles’ title.
Five of our juniors represented Leamington in the Heart of England Cadet League, Timmy Cooper, Solomon Hayes and Theo Rutter comprising the A team and Tom Meldrum and Charlie Snelson, the B team.
Scott Delday, Solomon Hayes and Luke Spencer represented Leamington Juniors in the Midlands League.
We entered 3 teams in The National Cadet League at Wellingborough and, for the first time, came away with trophies when after 4 days of intense competition, our A team of Solomon Hayes, Theo Rutter and Tom Meldrum landed runners-up spot in the second division and our B team of Ben King, Charlie Snelson and Andrew McIlvaney took runners-up position in the 3rd division.
We also entered a team in the National Junior League. Roald Myers, Ben Haigh and Chris Beckett did very well to earn a spot in division 1 and then played creditably in this very tough division.
In September we entered 21 teams in the Leamington League and increased this to 22 from January.
Our A team of Tom Brocklehurst, Deepak Chandrababu, Luke Hobbins, Hugh Matthews and Chris Mulligan finished 4th, our highest finish in division 1 for many seasons. Two years ago we were pleased to be staving off relegation. Their new-found status owes much to their dedication at the table.
Our injury hit B team of Scott Delday, Michael Ho, Tom Hunt and Luke Spencer took 5th place in the second division but would have been higher given a clean bill of health. Our C side also contested this level but were unfortunate to lose one of their players to our B side just after the season started. Cherry Matthews, Julie Richardson and Anthony Smith nevertheless did well to finish 11th, possibly avoiding relegation, and were especially strong in the last few matches.
We were very pleased with our D team in division 3 who acquired some new players and took 4th position. Stuart Dalrymple, John Taylor, Mandy Thomas and Kim Wong
did us proud. Our E side unexpectedly found themselves in this division (as a favour to the League) and Chris Beckett, Lleryn Brocklehurst, Pete Rourke and Russell Spencer finished 9th of 9. However, should they remain at this level next season, which is quite likely, they will be better equipped.
We entered 4 new teams in Division 4 and were overjoyed that the F side of Solomon Hayes, Roald Myers, Troy Pierce and Theo Rutter clinched promotion by coming 2nd. Roald had the division’s second highest average and might well take this trophy if the top player is deemed to have played insufficient matches.
Our X team of Jordan and Lincoln Liburd and Caroline Nicholls were a creditable 6th and the H team of Adam Cooper, Ben Haigh, Ben King and Charlie Snelson learnt well and finished 8th. Our female side of Jess Campion, Lauren Delday, Angela John and Lindy Myers could not avoid bottom spot but showed enough improvement to indicate that they will be stronger next season.
The 2-a-side league has an Autumn and a Spring competition. Our I team of Keith Knott and Tony Williams finished 3rd before Christmas but improved to take runners-up spot in the Spring. The J team of Timmy Cooper, Jack Leggatt and David Marguerie won division B with Timmy enjoying a 100% record and then took 4th spot in A. FC K (Matthew Flood, Anita Whitehouse and Estyn Williams) were runners-up in B and then came 5th in A. FC L took 3rd spot in B, missing out on promotion, but rectified the situation after Christmas finishing second. James Payne, Kris Reiman and Simon Cooper were the successful trio with Kris gaining an average of 93%.
The M side were harshly placed in division C in both campaigns but Harry Keen, Luke and Paul Watkins stuck to their task and finished 4th and then 5th.
The N team of Andrew McIlvaney, Harry Purewal and Tom Sharpe finished 3rd in Division D in the Autumn but were promoted and improved rapidly to take 3rd in Division C. FC O, Callum Guest and Sam Wiggins, finished 2nd in division D and, after being joined by Dudley Turner, won the C division. Sam enjoyed his 3rd promotion in 3 campaigns since he started at club. FC P (Olivia and Tom Fletcher and Tom Meldrum) were 5th in division D and then took 3rd place in this division in the Spring.
FC Q were Champions of division E in the Autumn and then took 5th spot in D in the Spring. Congratulations go to James Foster, Matthew Scott and Jay Virdi, who finished with a 100% average in the Autumn. FC R (Lee Dorning, Joe Hunt and Jeremy Knott) were runners-up in E and then runners-up in D.
FC S (Daniel Shaw, Dudley Turner and Sundeep Virdi) finished 5th with Dudley on 100% and then, with Sam Weaving replacing Dudley, 4th. FC T, Ben Farmer, James Robertson and Kit Turner finished 4th and then 5th in a division which was a lot stronger in the Spring. Our new January team of Aung and Chris Soe won the E division.
League Accolades:
FC F Runners-up Division 4
FC J Champions Division B Autumn
FC K Runners-up Division B Autumn
FC O Runners-up Division D Autumn
FC Q Champions Division E Autumn
FC R Runners-up Division E Autumn
FC I Runners-up Division A Spring
FC L Runners-up Division B Spring
FC O Champions Division C Spring
FC R Runners-up Division D Spring
FC U Champions Division E Spring
The future looks rosy. We have welcomed Adam Cofler and Oscar Dalrymple to the club this month and we hope they will join our other non-league players (Sophie Bethell, Douglas Boyle, Eve Briscoe, Hugh Doody, Tom Harris, Ashley Knott, Molly-Ann Morton, Daniel Robinson, James Robinson, Jenny Singleton, Lewis Singleton, Simran Virdi, James Wilson and Josh Wyatt-Smith) plus a new adult, Sibel Saka, in ensuring that the club goes from strength to strength.
Phil John
Chair
