Devenish Bar Tournament

Davey and the winners

Once again, there was a great response from the members at Enniskillen Lawn Tennis Club to last Thursday night’s American Tournament sponsored by Devenish Bar. A series of doubles matches were played over 4 rounds with the top 2 ladies and gents partaking in the final

The early rounds provided the usual list of hard luck stories. Anne Smyth and Liz Murphy just lost out to Bridie McCaffrey and Maura Newman 2-3, although both Anne and Liz overcame this setback with a convincing 4-1 victory in their next match. Stephen Kettyles underlined his considerable potential with a fine win when partnering Maura Newman against Scott Livingstone and Bridie McCaffrey. Seamus O’Connell and Liz Murphy scored handsomely against Clive Bruce and Maxine Leary. Hugh Maguire made a strong claim for inclusion in future team selection with an outstanding individual performance when partnering Anne Smyth and Innes Redmond. To the delight of all spectators, perhaps the biggest surprise of the night was the run of four convincing wins from four by Carol Livingstone who has built up her repertoire from her many club night appearances. Kathleen Murphy can consider herself most unfortunate not to have qualified for the final with 3 wins from 3 matches and only falling at the last hurdle. In the end, the clear winners from the mens and ladies sections were Donal Burns and Hugh Maguire and Jenny Humphries and Carol Livingstone. The final saw the astute Jenny and Hugh taking the honours although with Donal continuing to build up his experience in finals, he is becoming a harder nut to crack these days.

Prizes were presented by Dominic Burns on behalf of Mark Reid of the Devenish Bar. It proved a most enjoyable night with warm tributes being paid to the generous sponsorship from the Devenish Bar and to Sonja Hateboer for providing the large crowd with a great spread.

Last but not least a big thank you to John Griffin for organizing the whole event.