Iain Mackie - Inaugural Tournament 2007

The Coach's Cup has been the annual tournament for all senior Club members who regularly attend our Monday evening group coaching sessions. This year, we've actually a Trophy for the 'Coach's Cup' competition - which will now be known as the 'Iain Mackie Trophy'.

Iain was a much loved, long-serving member, and the Chairman of Bishopthorpe Tennis Club when I first joined many years ago. Iain tragically died earlier this year, but his son, James has remained a member and now attends the junior coaching. The Mackie family recently donated £500 to the club for the 'Courtaid 08' fundraising initiative.

Iain will be sadly missed and we hope that this event will be well attended, and a fitting tribute to him.

John Moore, Club Coach

The tourney was played in 'American format' - which meant that people played mutliple games with different partners. Only 4 games per match and the scores for each individual, tallied after several rounds.

About 20 people turned out for the inaugural Iain Mackie Trophy. It was an overcast evening - but at least it wasn't raining (hooray!)

John Moore has frequently coached us that good match-play is all about staying focussed. Here is an example of what happens when you don't stay focussed. Milly effects an overhead smash in a very blurry fashion indeed, and misses ...with a little help from the net.

Unfortunately, with the low light levels - a lot of photos were blurred. If you don't see your photo here - my apologies - but most were completely unusable.

David Moore did a superlative job of organising the whole event - allocating pairs, keeping the play going and collating those all-important scores.

Each pairing was carefully seeded by David to ensure fair play.

Here you can see that 6' 8" Alex has been paired with diminutive 4' 2" Linda.

I think that perhaps Alex should also have been made to play in black and white...

Unfortunately Tracey's net-game has suffered a little since the end of Wimbledon and the start of the Copa America.

Katie Lewis had to face a nerve-wracking Semi-Final tie against Milly to try and get into the Tournament Final - with everyone gawking (gulp)...

...whereas Sharpey (Matthew) could rely on sheer Emopower to get himself into the Final tie of the evening.

The Final was battled out between Matthew and Milly vs Alex and Linda ...and on occasion, Nora the dog. The action was nail-biting and enjoyed by the spectators who'd all stayed to cheer their favourites on.

Iain Mackie Trophy winners Alex and Linda (centre) flanked by worthy runners-up, Matthew and Milly The thunder was rumbling and the lightning flashed as the presentation was made. We all breathed a sigh of relief to have managed an evening's Tennis without another wash-out. It had been hectic and at times, confusing, but everyone enjoyed their Tennis and certainly enjoyed the sandwiches and nibbles brought along by Linda and by Lee. Many thanks to them and to everyone who took part. It was certainly an evening of which Iain would have been proud. Thanks to the generosity of the MacKie family, our improvers who come to group-coaching each week, can look forward to demonstrating their new skills and competing for the Iain Mackie trophy every year.