By Val Leafe, tournament organiser

THE Cecil Heard Trophy was held at Bude Tennis Club on Thursday, October3, in glorious weather even when it got dark!

Before play commenced, much discussion was had as to the format for this doubles tournament as it hadn’t been held for a while.

Cecil Heard was very involved in the tennis club until his death in 2003 aged 71. He was always keen that members of all standards should enter club competitions and so he devised the format of playing three games with your partner and two games against your partner to make it fairer. He donated the trophy and won the tournament in its inaugural year (2000) alongside Gary Bickle!

With seven pairs all playing against each other, the tournament did take a long time to finish, and the floodlights had to deployed, but everyone had a lot of fun and there were some great rallies and close matches.

After all the scores were added up, there was a tie for first place between two pairs: Carole Hunt and Gordon Cordeiro and Sharon Box and John Brooks both with 38 points – huge congratulations to them!

It is without doubt, that past and present members, like Cecil,who helped introduce the club floodlights in 1994 and was also heavily involved in the wider community, have ensured that the club is still thriving with over 100 members, young and older of mixed abilities and a professional Level 4 tennis coach – Inga Ziemina.

Regular inter-club tournaments are held and currently we have several tournaments in progress. The next evening tennis event is the autumn Hurlingham – a doubles tournament – which will be held on Thursday, October 17 (5.30pm). All members are welcome!

For more information, visitwww. budetennisclub.uk or contact Inga directly at www.ingastennisschool.com.