The Sonning, Spring American tournament is the first tournament of the year. It is a tournament that encourages all levels of player and is played in a friendly and fun spirit. The tournament takes up most of the day and refreshments and barbecue food are served. Come along and enjoy a friendly tournament in hopefully early summer conditions.

Our club tournaments for the year 2011:

Sonning LTC American Tournament Rules

1. All participant players are entered into a draw to find a partner. This is a mixed tournament so a ladies name is drawn from the hat and then a gent's name is drawn and the two players make a team.
   
2. If there is an unequal number of gents and ladies then, before the draw for partners is done, an appropriate number of ladies should be chosen to play as gents (or, conversely, gents chosen to play as ladies).
   
3. When 2 gents play together against a lady + a gent, the gents start scoring at -15.  Similarly, when 2 ladies play against a lady + a gent, the ladies start scoring at +15.
   
4. A set consists of 8 games.
   Half of the games in the set are played WITH your partner and the other half AGAINST your partner.
   
5. Before play begins, the LADIES spin for choice of side or service.
   
6. After the first half of the set, the GENTS change partners.
   
7. Each player is responsible for keeping a count of the number of games he/she has won in each set.  These scores are then recorded on the score sheet at the end of the set.
   
8. Each team plays every other team in the tournament.
   
9. After every team has played each other, the 4 ladies with the highest number of points and the 4 gents with the highest number of points are entered into a draw to pick new partners for the semi-final matches. The partners picked during this stage stay together for the duration of the tournament. The winners of the two semi-finals play in the final.
   
10. The partners who win the final are the American Tournament champions.