Preston Bowl entrants
(plus Organiser Jim Eastwood holding the Preston Bowl)
The Preston Bowl Competition is an Open mixed doubles competition for players of all ages that has been contested annually since 1934. In the recent past, it has been held on the first Sunday of the Open week, but in 2007 was moved to ealier in the year. In 2008 and 2009 it was cancelled due to bad weather, and this year it was moved back to the Open week. It narrowly missed being lost to the weather again this year on the final Saturday (14th August) of the Open week. However, the competitors persevered in playing a few games at a time and the Tournament finally reached its conclusion under floodlights in the evening after the numerous breaks for the heavy rain showers.
The initial field of doubles pairs was reduced to eight in the qualifier round on Saturday morning, and the main event this year was played in the afternoon as a knockout with consolation draw. Craig and Linda were on good form in the first match. They proved much too strong for Bev and Gail and so moved into the main draw
| Final | Winner | |
| Craig Amison-Smith | ||
| 1 | Linda Boston | Craig Amison-Smith |
| Bev Woodcock | Linda Boston | |
| 2 | Gail Viney | #1: 6-2 6-2 |
The main draw was run as a knockout with consolation draw for the first round losers. Each match was played as two sets and a match tie-break.
The top half of the draw was easily dominated by the first seeds, Miles and Kathryn. Unfortunately they were left with a very long wait for the bottom half of the draw as close matches and heavy rain showers slowed things down.
In their first match, second seeds Orlando and Samantha only just managed to overcome Craig and Linda, and in their second match looked like being knocked out by Debra and Matthew. It was only in the last three points of the match tie-break that they finally managed to pull clear and win their place in the final.
| Quarterfinals | Semifinals | Final | Winner | |
| Miles Elliott | ||||
| 1 | Kathryn Schutterlin | Miles Elliott | ||
| Dave Stepney | Kathryn Schutterlin | |||
| 2 | Dawn Torgersen | #1: 6-1 6-0 | Miles Elliott | |
| Daniel Scharf | Kathryn Schutterlin | |||
| 3 | Helen Asbury | Daniel Scharf | #5: 6-0 6-1 | |
| David Lloyd | Helen Asbury | |||
| 4 | Annabel Lloyd | #2: 6-1 6-3 | Orlando Lloyd | |
| Tim Ramirez-Cuesta | Samantha Howse | |||
| 5 | Gabriella Ramirez-Cuesta | Matthew Davies | #7: 6-2 6-1 | |
| Matthew Davies | Debra Davies | |||
| 6 | Debra Davies | #3: 6-1 6-3 | Orlando Lloyd | |
| Craig Amison-Smith | Samantha Howse | |||
| 7 | Linda Boston | Orlando Lloyd | #6: 6-4 4-6 [10-7] | |
| Orlando Lloyd | Samantha Howse | |||
| 8 | Samantha Howse | #4: 7-5 7-6 | ||
The final was a disappointment for Miles and Kathryn. They never managed to regain their form of the early part of the day in a final that was interrupted several times by rain showers and was completed under floodlights. The close battles that Orlando and Samantha had scraped through earlier seemed to have honed their game. The quality of tennis in the final was good and there were many closely fought games, but Orlando and Samantha always retained the edge to emerge as Preston Bowl 2010 winners.
Preston Bowl winners, Orlando Lloyd and Samantha Howse
Timmy and Gabriella could not find their game in their first match against Debra and Matthew and were well beaten. It looked like the same would happen to them in their first consolation match, but they managed to come back against tiring Craig and Linda to take the match tie break. In the other consolation semi-final, Dawn and Dave overcame the somewhat disheartened Lloyd family pair to complete the consolation final line-up. Unfortunately for Dawn and Dave, the rain seemed to have woken up Timmy and Gabriella, as they played their best tennis of the day to take the consolation final.
| Semifinals | Final | Winner | |
| Dave Stepney | |||
| 1 | Dawn Torgersen | ||
| Loser #1 | Dave Stepney | ||
| Dawn Torgersen | |||
| David Lloyd | #8: 6-2 6-2 | ||
| 2 | Annabel Lloyd | ||
| Loser #2 | Tim Ramirez-Cuesta | ||
| Gabriella Ramirez-Cuesta | |||
| Tim Ramirez-Cuesta | #10: 6-3 6-4 | ||
| 3 | Gabriella Ramirez-Cuesta | ||
| Loser #3 | Tim Ramirez-Cuesta | ||
| Gabriella Ramirez-Cuesta | |||
| Craig Amison-Smith | #9: 2-6 6-3 [11-9] | ||
| 4 | Linda Boston | ||
| Loser #4 | |||
The Preston Bowl Competition has over 70 years of history. The following information was extracted from the club minutes of 1934:
"At the committee meeting on 23 Jan 1934 it was proposed and agreed that the Crescent Tennis Club be renamed the Abingdon Lawn Tennis Club. At the same meeting Mr A E Preston was elected President of the Club. It was agreed that a competition open to residents in Berkshire within a 13 miles radius of Abingdon would be initiated. The winner will be presented with a Challenge Cup to be given by Mr Preston. The competition is to be played on Whit Monday and to be an American Tournament. Play to commence at 11am and the final to be of 3 sets."(Note that in July 1933 the club applied for affiliation to the LTA.)