I made it down there yesterday at about 6 o'clock, just in time to catch the men's semis. There was also a mixed doubles tournament going on with a bit of prize money on offer which added to the overall pool with Marcus Willis and Lucy Brown as the top seeds.
Saw Broady v Carpenter and Jack started off really fast, going 4-1 up, but fell away as the match went on and lost 6-4 6-2. Other people were saying his match with JWH earlier in the day was a real battle that went on for ages so unsurprisingly he looked really tired. Jack's support team consisted of his Dad and brother(?) who had to run to the car up the road to get another can of Red Bull, while Liam had Mark Hilton in his corner, presumably on LTA expense. With no umpires or proper scoreboards it can be a bit hard to follow the score sometimes, although Liam helpfully announced the score every point before he was about to serve or receive. Unfortunately he was the only one so I never really had an idea what the score was in the Willis v Ireland match but Marcus won in 3 sets.
Also the court surface was really weird and pretty hard to describe, not proper hard court but a strange, netted type of surface. It was really slow and very tough to hit any winners so lots of long rallies.
I do find it strange that they don't have some sort of score board system - those ones that clip onto the wire fencing are pretty cheap (some clubs I know have DIY versions with a board and a nail and squares with the numbers). It's only respectful to the spectators really - some players don't like announcing scores but just changing the score each time you change ends is fine and something a tournament referee can insist on.
However, congrats to Liam who's been having a good run of form recently and pockets a nice cheque :
Liam Broady [5/739] def. Marcus Willis [1/470] 6-1 6-3
(In the women, Lucy Brown beat Fran Stephenson with Fran retiring at 1-4 down in the first set. Hope she's OK. And Katy Dunne who also had to retire yesterday)
