Hobson and Kempson up ante at Wembley
Mandy Hobson and Megan Kempson emerged as the new champions of another successful Wembley Women’s Doubles tennis tournament at Wembley on Saturday.
The day was postponed from earlier in September when rain prevented the tournament from being played.
Nonetheless, Wembley Club chair Leslie Young said it was great success.
“We did have a number of players unable to play [on] the postponed day, but it was still another wonderful day of tennis, enjoyed by all who took part,” he said.
“We had a total of 40 players [20 couples] and there was again good competition in the fourth edition of the tournament.”
For the first time since the event’s inception, Jayne Turner and Di Gascoyne did not win the title, being narrowly beaten by Hobson and Kempson in the final round-robin match.
It served as the decider of the first section, with the eventual winners clinching a tightly fought encounter 5-4.
All section one group matches played were to the best of nine games and there was nothing between the top two couples as they ended up at 4-4 in the deciding match.
By taking the tiebreaker, Hobson and Kempson finished the tournament on 49 points, one ahead of Gascoyne and Turner.
Section two was won by Yolande Parker-Nance and Denise van Huysteen on 40 points, with Jenny Vosloo and Julia Keevy runners-up on 37.
The third section went to Collen Driescher and Samantha Flack on 28 points, two ahead of Jessica Fraser and Melanie Smith.
Young said they would definitely keep the event on the calendar and were looking forward to hosting the fifth edition in 2019.