Tolkein closes in on his half century

WHEN John Newcombe was winning his third Wimbledon in 1971 a young Dudley Tolkein was making his debut in the Plymouth and District Summer league.

- DAVE AND SUE GALE

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After missing only a few of the intervening years, he played his 49th season this week when Yelverton A faced Mannamead C in Division 3. Unfortunately, he wasn’t able to help Mannamead to victory as they lost 16-72.

Mannameads’s problem with player availability meant that again they were only able to field one pair at St Budeaux and Rich Mitchell and Ed Rescorl played well and took full advantage of an error-strewn display by Dave Gale and Varun Philip and won easily. However, Gale and Philip did better against the junior pairing of Theo Richardson and Brad Wood as St Budeaux won 54-20.

The issues with player availability has probably cost Mannamead B their chance of getting one of the two promotion spots.

Hill Lane B strengthened their position at the top of Division 3 by beating Plympton B 62-34. Paul Robertson and Richard Cooper the only pair to win for Plympton B.

With both Devonshire A and Mannamead A vying for second place in Division 1, it was shaping up to be a good match.

Despite Sam Williams and Tom Pantling both serving tremendously well with great power and accuracy, both Devonshire pairs were able to overcome Mannamead’s first pair and take both matches.

Devonshire’s George Wellbourne and Chris Price worked extremely well together on court to produce two comfortable wins. The 71-33 win for Devonshire should see them overtake Mannamead into second place.