The much delayed final of the 5th place tournament finally has finally taken place. In case you’ve forgotten, the main event was won by John Hannah who defeated Krzysztof Borkowicz in the final. In the 5th place ‘final’, club President Lindsay Muir took on Charlie McGowan at the Gyle Pop in & Play venue.

Charlie started brightly, with some nice flicked returns gaining him some key points. Lindsay battled back with some dogged defence, and led 2-1 after taking a long and tight 3rd set 14-12. Eventually, Charlie’s impressive consistency with his forehand helped him take control. Clearly the amount of training he has been able to do during the lockdown periods is paying off. Some nice off forehands wrong-footed Lindsay on several points. Lindsay defended pretty well throughout but was unable to maintain consistency with his own attacks. He did however produce some nice trademark super-spinny backhand loops, with a few others missing by a fraction. Though Charlie was sometimes frustrated with some backhand errors, he did well to quickly recover his positivity after these moments. As the game went on Charlie found the right pace and approach to overcome Lindsay’s spinny chop, and took the final 3 sets to win 4-2.

Final score:
(6-11 | 11-5 | 14-12 | 5-11 | 6-11 | 8-11).

Reflecting on the match, Lindsay related that Charlie ‘has definitely improved a lot, he seems to have so much more time on the ball -putting balls where I wasn’t expecting. I was 2-1 up, but felt he was in control and had another gear on hand when needed. In my defence, it’s my first match this year and I think I could have given Charlie a closer match’.

Well done to Charlie for his victory. Hopefully we’ll be able to run a more normal Murrayfield Club Championships this year. With sessions at Broughton HS and the Church Hall now starting, there are more opportunities for MTTC members to get back into TT. Also, look out for news of an exciting new club venue.

Charlie Ellis