The 55th Annual Tournament was held on 4th and 5th March, 2023.

More than 70 players enjoyed the sun while they could in the 55th edition of the Nelson Veterans Tennis Club annual tournament over the weekend.

Great weather on Saturday for the women’s and men’s doubles saw 58 matches played.

The weather did not hold for Sunday’s mixed doubles and all play was cancelled without any matches having begun when persistent rain in the morning had water pooling on the courts.

Entries were up by six on the previous year with 94 players entered for the three events.

The women’s doubles were contested by 34 players in four round robin draws with the top seeds taking the finals of all four draws.

The top division was won by local players Ruth Seeman and Suzanne Spencer who conceded only six games in their three matches, winning the final 6-3, 6-0 against another local pairing Alice Anderson and Annette Bormolini.

The division 2 women’s final also featured all local players with sisters Kate Prebble and Susan Rooney taking the final 9-1 against Denise Marshall and Heidi Mayer.

Division 3 in the women was the most hotly contested draw of the day with three of the six matches going to 9-8 tiebreak results including the final won by Rhonwyn Knecht and Melanie Seymour in a hard fought victory over Lynda Jury and Win-Li Toh, all four again being Nelson players.

In the women’s division 4 draw the Canterbury pairing of Sue Dennis and Ngaire Simmons were too strong for their opposition, only conceding two games all day and winning the final 9-2 against Nelson’s Jill Dickinson and Gill Summers.

The men’s doubles were contested by 40 players in five round robin draws. The top division featured all Nelson players with top seeds Simon Phillips and Kolie van Zyl winning their three matches in straight sets to take the title.

Steve Daykin and Peter McMillan were runners-up, the result being decided on the difference of games won and lost after all three pairings finished with a win each.

The men’s division 2 final was won by the Marlborough pairing of Stephen Dempster and Owen Dodson who beat Nelson’s John Dunlop and John Skelton 9-3.

Like the women, division 3 was also the most hotly contested men’s draw with all eight players being from Nelson and three pairings having two wins apiece. A count-back on difference between games won and lost was also tied by two pairings so it went to the head-to-head result between them for Jimmy Coombes and Jasper Rahal to take the win 9-4 over runners-up Mark Robinson and Mike Spencer.

The men’s division 4 was won by Marlborough’s Scott Booth and Blair Hantz who won all three of their matches. Runners-up were Adam Horan (Wanaka) and Ian Dahlberg (Nelson). The men’s division 5 final was won by top seeds John Lovelock (Nelson) and Robbie Watson (Canterbury) who beat Kevin Simpson and Paul Townend (both Nelson) 9-4.

      Link to 2023 results on TNZ website

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The 50th Annual Tournament was held on 3rd & 4th March, 2018. Entries were well up with  92 players and 63 entries over the two days. Fine weather ensured another great tournament for Nelson Vets and all 105 matches were completed with play finishing by 5pm on Saturday and shortly after 3pm Sunday.

      Link to 2018 results on TNZ website

The 49th Annual Tournament was held on the 4th and 5th March, 2017. Although entries were down on last year with 60 players competing ( 71 last year ) there were sufficient for all players to get at least three matches and with fine weather all weekend ( if a little breezy ) the tournament was another great success for Nelson Vets Tennis.

For further information contact tournament organiser email : [email protected]