The Lord Percival is an inter-club doubles tournament for players 25 handicap and above and was held on the weekend of the 11th-13th March.
Philadelphia 1 and Boston were the top two teams and they justified their seeding with victories in the semi-final over their opponents, New York and Washington respectively.
Washington gave Boston a scare as they went up 1-0 in matches when the team of Vern Cassin and David Sterrett showed remarkable poise and skill as they beat the more fancied pair of Chris Blier and John Edwards 6/4 6/4
Bill Connors and John Mears then steadied the ship for Boston as they did just enough to get by the 2nd pair Vu Hoang and Jake McCray 6/2 5/6 6/4
Coming down to the final match the #1 pair David Tedeschi and Garrett Gates were always in front and ran out straight sets winners 6/4 6/4 over Ryan Carey and Jason Hirama
The other semi- final was between New York and Philadelphia 1
These matches were all very tight but the home court advantage seemed to make the difference as the team comprising of Chris Bernabei, Kurt Wulfekuhler, Gary Swanter, Schuyler Wickes, Peter Vogt and Alec Monagahan managed to win the three matches in straight sets over the New York team who were Mike Ziatyk, Jeff Cutshall, Arthur Whitcomb, Mitch Kelly Michael Do and Zach Sacks.
The consolation final was played on Sunday morning as the Newport team ( Ettiene De La Valette, Lou Habina, Richard Gilder, Alex Aimette, Matt Hyde and Amanda Avedissian) were the victors as they made up for a slow start in the main event by showing their true colors and winning the tie 2/1 over Philadelphia 3 (Andrew Purcell, Steve Sader, Kathy Carson, Glenn Partridge, Melissa Purcell and Bruce Katz.)
The main final promised to be an exciting event and it did not disappoint.
In the first match the #3 pair of Chris Blier and John Edwards from Boston found themselves down 5/3 in the last set but managed to snatch victory from the jaws of defeat by beating Chris Bernabei and Kurt Wulfekuhler 6/5 in the third.
This seemed to give Boston the momentum for the final as the # 2 pair of John Mears and Bill Connors proved too strong by playing their best tennis of the tournament to beat Gary Swantner and Schuyler Wickes 6/3 6/4.
The dead rubber was played in very good spirit with the dynamic duo of Garrett Gates and David Tedeschi ran out convincing winners over Philadelphia’s #1 pair Peter Vogt and Alec Monaghan 6/1 6/2.
Thanks to all the participants, in particular the travelling teams who made this event such a success and we look forward to the next Lord Percival event.
