by Nick Howell
Newport hosted the Burke Cup this year. We had twelve entries with six from Newport and the other six coming from DC & Boston.
The Burke Cup kicked off with a great match between two of our members — Sewall Hodges & James Chamberlain. James is college student and the grandson of former NTC president, John Murphy. He has been playing the last few months and it’s hard to keep him off the court. Despite James being eight points weaker on handicap, he really made Sewall work hard to grind out a win 6-4 6-5. Four more matches followed that day and were all straight forward with the favorites winning their matches.
The quarterfinal matches started early on Saturday morning with Andrew Peabody of Boston making light work of his match, beating Tyler Sloan 6-3 6-3. Tyler had an impressive win over Dan Paquette 6-0 6-1 the day before. Ross Cann followed and had a surprisingly comfortable win over Sean Quinn 6-1 6-0. PJ Jean had a good win over Sewall Hodges. Beating Sewall in three sets 6-2 5-6 6-0.
Before the semifinal matches of the Burke Cup we had two semifinal matches in the consolation draw. Young James Chamberlain beat Dan Paquette 10-3 and Arthur Chapman had a solid win over another one of our new young and upcoming players — Dan Robillard Jr. 10-4.
The first Buke Cup semifinal was the match of the tournament. PJ Jean took on number one seed — Tom Hemingway. There had tight first set with Tom coming out on top 6-5. In the second set, Tom continued his solid play and was leading 5-1, 40-30 up defending chase half a yard. That is when PJ came to life. He smashed the ball in to the dedans and won the game. Amazingly he took the set and the final set for a great win 5-6 6-5 6-4. In the second semi, Andrew Peabody dispatched Ross Cann 6-2 6-1. His speed and attacking play were too much for Ross. He was now the firm favorite to win.
Players and guests enjoyed a lovely dinner at La Forge casino restaurant on Saturday evening.
The Burke Cup final started at 10 am Sunday morning. Andrew Peabody vs PJ Jean. Both from Boston.
With the way PJ had been playing and Andrew’s decisive victory in his semifinal, this looked like it would be a close and exciting match. The first several games were tight with both players chasing every ball down and the were many rallies over ten shots and many 40-all points. It was Andrew who came out on top of the early exchanges and closed out the set 6-1. The score line was harsh for PJ and it was a lot closer than that. In the second set, Andrew kept up his great play, chasing every ball down and always making PJ play one more shot. PJ started to make a few more errors from the relentless pressure from Andrew. Andrew won the set to love, winning the match 6-1 6-0 to become the 2019 Burke Cup champion. This will be the last time we see Andrew play in the Burke Cup as his handicap has now dropped in to the 30’s and he is only going to get better.
In the Consolation Final Arthur Chapman had a good win over James Chamberlain. 10-4
