The Hatfield Hurricane + Jon's 20 years of Service

Yesterday Hhtc Pros hosted it's 2nd year of The Hatfield Hurricane; attended by 20 competitors in a doubles round robin format players attended the tournament meal on the Friday where pairings were drawn out of the hat, odds were attained and bets were made on the most likely victors.

Unique to the Hurricane each player also got to draw out of the hat a player from the opposing group who they "owned" for the tournament. If this player happened to make the final or even won on the day a cash prize was up for grabs. This created a great atmosphere in the dedans with players cheering on their backed competitor.

Play commenced on Saturday morning from 9am through to 7pm with each group match consisting of one set first to 5 games or 25 minuts on the clock with the top two pairs from each group making it through to he semi finals.

Play was paused at 1pm for a on court photo with all competitors and club professionals. Unknown to Jon Dawes there was an ulterior motive...

Jon has recently achieved 20 years of fantastic service to the club and the membership joined him on court to show their gratitude with a touching speech by the chairman followed by a few heart felt words by Jon. We all feel very lucky to have such a great head professional at Hatfield who has made the club such a friendly, fun and welcoming place to play our tennis and we look forward to many more years to come with him.

Well done to John Longhurst and Joe Thompson who sealed tournament victory in the final with a crushing forehand into the winning gallery!

A big thank you to (Tournament Committee) Steve, Jo and Alister for all their hard work making the event a huge success, providing a fantastic breakfast and lunch on the day accompanied with HHTC's house wine and Bloody Mary's!!