Ingle and Little take top spot in Superstars Christmas Tournament at Melton Tennis Club

Fourteen members turned out with club coach Brent Horobin organising the pairings over four rounds of battling tennis, with the format of playing the best of seven games against the opposition with a sudden death deuce point played.

On the Men’s side Dave Owen led the way in the early rounds with two big wins but two late defeats saw him overtaken by John who, despite two early narrow 4-3 defeats, responded with a 5-2 win followed by a big 6-1 win with partner Bridget Ingle over Dave and Gareth Jones which clinched the title, pipping Joe Cunningham, Paul Heaton and Peter Lovegrove by a single point.

John Little 17, Jo Cunningham 16, Paul Heaton 16, Peter Lovegrove 16, Gareth Jones 13, Ash Parmar 12,Dave Owen 12, Neil Ingle 11

On the Ladies side Bridget suffered two defeats by a big score but hit back to notch a tremendous 7-0 win followed by a 5-2 win, which was enough to see her come out on top, just pipping youngster Abi Hickling by a single point.

Bridget Ingle 16, Abi Hickling 15, Michelle Heaton 14,Eluned Owen 13, Kay Gibbon 13, Val White 12

Team captain Ash Parmar took the honours after an Autumn team tussle with rival captain Mo Reza and his team over many Saturday afternoons.

A mix-up ended with Mo failing to arrive for the final and his team seemed unable to respond to the challenge without their captain.

In the competition for the most winning sets collecting over the season Dave Owen came out on top with a superb score of 55 with Neil Ingle and Joe Cunningham joint second with 35 sets and Mo Reza with 27 in third place.

On the Ladies side it was a much tighter affair with Michelle Heaton coming out on top with 39 wins followed by Bridget Ingle on 37 and Kay Gibbon on 33 wins in third place.

A special prize was awarded to ‘Honest’ John Little, who was commended for handing in monies found near parked cars at the Sports Village and then surprised club mate Mo Reza, who had lost the money, and was a delighted and relieved man that John had handed the cash in.

All the prizes were presented by Brent who highlighted the superb spirit that the club had built up from social club members throughout the club on Saturday Adult Groups, Tuesday Men’s Group, Thursday Club Night Groups and Ladies Tuesday and Thursday Groups.

Next up for the club will see Head Coach Di Burdett running a Junior Tournament at the club on 28th December where the Shane Hughes Shield will be presented to the selected club’s Junior Ambassador for 2023.