The 2013 CTC Leimonias Seniors competition was played in the Hague, Netherlands. Unfortunately, the first cold shower came when two of the four teams scheduled to compete withdrew from the event at a very late stage, leaving the host club to face the team from RCTB1899 (Real Club de Tenis Barcelona-1899). The second cold shower came from the sky just 30 minutes before the first matches – one of the warmest nights of the summer was ended by a heavy thunderstorm and changed the clay courts to swimming pools. However, the artificial clay courts were quickly playable and the first evening offered nice doubles and mixed doubles matches for all participants before an unofficial dinner.
The second day started with a sightseeing bicycle tour around the city. After some hard work by the courtmaster and his team all of the courts were playable again. The second day offered some great singles, doubles and mixed doubles. The official dinner took place in a very friendly atmosphere with hilarious speeches. On top of the winners’ trophy and beautiful medals, one for each participant provided by sponsor EFG, special prices were given for example to smartest player, best smile… The players continued the evening to explore the Dutch cultural scene in the form of the Museum Night 2013.
The third day offered further some friendly doubles and mixed doubles matches. The bicycle tour the day before had worked for the muscles of the Spanish players and the typical Dutch light rain gave an advantage to the hosting players. Despite the setbacks, the fixture between RCTB 1899 and HLTC Leimonias was both competitive and very enjoyable with RCTB 1899 coming out as winners from the revised match program. The format was expanded so as to give all players plenty of match practice over the three days of competition.
The organisers warmly thank all the players showing very friendly attitude on and off court. A warm thank you goes of course to the CTC Association and its sponsor EFG International.
WILLEM DE VRIES, TOM VAN DIJK &, ANTTI TALLGREN.
RCTB 1899
1) PATRICIA ARMET
2) SILVIA CAMPIUS
3) MAYDES ABAD
4) NACHO SOLER-CABOT
5) SEBASTIAN MARTINEZ
6) MANEL COSTA
7) GINES TERUEL
HLTC LEIMONIAS
1) MARGIT VELDS
2) REGINE D’AOUST
3) FIEKE ULEMAN
4) ASGAR KROL
5) TOM VAN DIJK
6) ERIK JAN ULEMAN
7) WILLEM SLUIS
8) WILLEM DE VRIES
9) ANTTI TALLGREN
10) MICHIEL BOOTS
11) PABLO MENDES DE LEON
12) ROB KLOMP
