Juego de Pelota & Ladies match vs IC of Belgium

2nd - 6th August 2017

Result: Runners-up
Venue: Royal Leopold Club in Brussels

The Royal International Lawn Tennis Club of Belgium celebrated its 70th anniversary with a superbly organised ‘El Juego de Pelota’ event for teams of two men over 70 and two men over 75. The beautiful and very heavy trophy for this event was donated many years ago by the IC of Mexico and is a small replica of a stadium for the old Mayan game of juego de pelota (ball game). The last time this IC event had been held was in 2014 in Mexico City.

The participating teams were France, Germany, Hungary, Ireland, South Africa as well as two teams from Belgium plus GB, which had as team members Mark Cox, Alan Purnell, Roy Henderson and Henk Nijeboer.

The event was played at the Royal Leopold Club in Brussels in a knock-out format with France reaching the final after victories over Belgium A (6-0) and Germany (4-2), while GB got there after beating Ireland (4-1) and Belgium A (5-1).

The final was played over two days with France leading GB by 3-1 after the singles. The deciding doubles matches, which were watched by many players and supporters, both went to a third set tiebreak, but France managed to win one of them beating GB 4-2 and thus retaining the title they had won in Mexico in 2014.

The event was played in an excellent atmosphere and the hospitality of the Belgians once again was without equal. There was a cocktail party on the day of arrival, a dinner at a restaurant at the Grande Place, a gala dinner with prize giving in a beautiful lakeside resort at the end of the tournament and two tours. A delightful lunch was served every day at the Leopold Club. At any time teams and partners were transported by bus or by private cars of members of the organising committee.

There was also a ladies match played between the ICs of Belgium and GB which was won convincingly by GB (Anne Clark, Rosie Dennis, Jenny Waggott and Pat Wire).

Pierre Mignot was made an honorary member of the IC of GB and Mark Cox was made an honorary member of Belgium.

View match information on the IC Council Website.

View match information on the IC of Belgium website.