Also, as opposed to not wanting a retired player to take points away from more active players, I am also actually a fan of Josh playing these tournaments. He is an excellent barometer of where our younger guys are at. If they are not able to consistently beat a retired Josh, they clearly still have a lot of work to do and it may be counterproductive for them to pick up the points if Josh wasn't there.
This is true. I'll be hoping that another Brit does stop Josh getting all the points (unless he's really thinking of playing full-time again and chasing the new Challenger bonuses, of course! ) but as much because that'll show that they're good enough to do so as for any other reason.
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GB on a shirt, Davis Cup still gleaming, 79 years of hurt, never stopped us dreaming ... 29/11/2015 that dream came true!
Doubles draw in full (to save time & effort later! ):
R1: (1) George Coupland & Marcus Daniell (NZL) CR 1011 vs BYE R1: David Pel & Vijay Sundar Prashanth (NED/IND) CR 2009 vs BYE R1: (4) Stefan Sterland-Markovic & Darren Walsh CR 1990 vs BYE R1: Richard Bloomfield & Ainsley Kershaw UNR vs Rob Carter & Adam Thornton-Brown CR 3120 R1: Duncan Scott & Allan McClure UNR vs Joseph Gill & Bruce Strachan UNR R1: BYE vs (3) Josh Goodall & Harry Meehan CR 1538 R1: BYE vs Nicolas Rosenzweig (FRA) & Harry Skinner UNR R1: BYE vs (2) James Marsalek & Tucker Vorster (RSA) CR 1190
Nice to see that Darren's still sticking round & Bloomers back in the fray.
Bruce STRACHAN (GBR) 6-4 6-1 Samm BUTLER (GBR) [1]
Nick EECKELAERS (GBR) 6-2 6-2 Scott DUNCAN (GBR) [2]
David PORTER (GBR) [3] 7-5 6-1 Vincent GILLESPIE (GBR)
Harry SKINNER (GBR) 6-2 6-4 Stefan STERLAND-MARKOVIC (GBR)
Jack PATERSON (GBR) 6-3 6-2 Allan MCCLURE (GBR)
Samuel TAYLOR (GBR) 7-6(5) 7-6(8) Sam HOLT (GBR)
Tom ALLEN (GBR) 6-4 4-6 6-1 Oliver BRENNAN (GBR)
Chris ANGUELOV (BUL) 7-6(5) 3-6 6-3 Adam BARRATCLOUGH (GBR)
quite a few, on the face of it, surprising results there . .