The Game4Padel circuit continues to go from strength to strength, with the Thistle Padel Club in Edinburgh hosting the LTA Padel Regional Women’s 3rd and Boys 3rd and 4th grade events last weekend.
Even though it’s the school holidays, 12 boys’ teams and six girls’ teams are at Thistle Field, with the men’s game on Saturday and the girls’ game on Sunday.
Reflecting on another successful tournament, Game4Padel Tour Manager Neil Harden believes that, in the words of the song, “everyone was a winner”: “There were a lot of very intense competitions, some great padel, and the weather was great, so all in all it was a very successful weekend, congratulations to the winners and all the participants,” Neil said.
He continued: “As a touring team, we’re growing steadily. Once the school holidays are over, I’m sure we’ll grow and build on that. There are people who would have played but are on holiday and they’ll be back next time Contest.
“The best thing is that the players know they’re going to play a few games and those games are going to be competitive and there’s a great social aspect to it, I think it’s a great formula to have a one-day game for each game .”
The first match was a men’s G4 match, with Aly Findlay and Jeremy Tilman taking on Jorge Del Pozo and Oriol O Oriol Ortigosa fought tenaciously on the counter-attack to win 6-3, 7-5.
Reflecting on his partnership’s first match win, Alli admitted he was already looking to use this maiden win to take it to the next level, saying: “Jeremy and I have played together before but this is our first. A win and getting three games in one day against players of similar caliber is huge. The next step for us is to try level 3 and really test ourselves.
“That said, the second set got really tense and with a 4-3 lead, Jorge and Oriol stepped up their game to steal our serve, but thankfully we managed to Come back from that game and finish the set and we’re really happy with the win.
“I would also like to tip off to Neil Harden. We had a total of three games, from 9am all the way to the final, and everything went really well, so it’s all down to Neil in terms of organization. excellent work.”
Honorable mention goes to Douglas Wood and Andrew Liggertwood, who beat Craig Mooney and Javier 4-6, 6-4, 6-3 in an epic consolation final. Palacian, this can be said to be a fourth-year championship game.
Next up was the Men’s Grade 3 event, where Game4Padel’s Vincent Hivert and Ross Murdoch beat Scotland Over-55 international John Byrne and Glasgow West tennis ace Gavin Picken 6-3, 6-4 to take first place in the five-team event – Robin incident.
After four grueling fights, Vincent admitted he was relieved that his partner was able to cross the winning line: “As far as my partnership with Rose was concerned, there were some very good ones in such a tough competition. It’s great to have players in the game and to be able to win.
“Our standards are similar, Rose takes up a lot of space and has really good hands, and we hope we can continue to practice and improve and enjoy playing together. But every game of ours is tough, individually From a standpoint, the physical performance made us breathe a sigh of relief!”
Particular mention goes to the third pairing of Alejandro Delacaba Medina and Antonio Fernández-LeBrez Martin, who competed in the last match before Alejandro returned to Spain Contest. The two gentlemen forced their way to the eventual champion, losing 6-7 (5), 4-6 in what could be described as a G3 event.
Edinburgh/Aberdeen’s Karen Crawford and Rachel Richmond go 6-1, 6-3 in the title game in the women’s G4 on Sunday beat Michelle Crease and Saida Faraco by 2.
For Rachel, victory hinged on some clever pre-race preparation, she explained: “We knew it was going to be tough because Michelle and Saida had been doing really well at the national championships recently and Karen and I Having not played together before this will be a real test.
“But Karen and I got to know each other’s game pretty quickly, we had a game plan, she covered the middle and everything fell into place. It was a really good win and we were happy with the way we played … We played four games in a row, which was a challenge, but we were unbeaten, so it went well.
“Now we will think about playing other games and maybe even test ourselves in England because we played really well together and are eager to play again.”
A special mention goes to Allan Bridge debutant Debbie Gillespie and Hazel Dewar, who won 6-1 and 6-0 Louise McKenzie and Aida Perez Palacios, who finished first in the consolation match.
