2021 Pell Cup Recap

The Pell Cup is an annual court tennis tournament held at the National Tennis Club located on the grounds of the International Tennis Hall of Fame. The Pell Cup is named in honor of C.C. Pell Jr.’s contributions to the game of court tennis, which included leading a group of devoted players to help fund the restoration of the National Tennis Court, the only public court tennis facility in the United States.

It had already been 2 years since the last Pell Cup, with the results from that event already a faded memory. However, with the first Pell Cup match on Wednesday August 18, 2021, there was a feeling of returning to normalcy. 

E Division

The first match of this year’s tournament featured Sewall Hodges and Kathy Minevitz against first time Pell Cup participants Victoria Scott and Bill Green from Philadelphia.

D Division

Past winners David Thill and Peter Arment joined forces again for the third year, while Larry Phillips rejoined the field with a different Salve Regina University student Delaney Pothier. Philadelphians SJ Ayoub and Haren Arcot were also joined by Jeremy Thompson who played with Newport local Michael Lanza.

Peter and David took the first match over Michael and Jeremy 6/3 6/2, and then defeated SJ and Haren 6/4 6/2, which put them in the driving seat in the division. While their next match was scheduled to be against Larry Phillip and Delaney Pothier, a team that had recently beaten them in the club handicap double, Peter and David took a walkover when one team member missed the match. Larry and Delaney were able to compete in their second scheduled match of the day and were victorious, leaving them in second place for the division.

C Division

On paper, considering the handicaps, the C division was expected to be the closest division between teams. However, this was not the way it unfolded as Peter Bender and Dan Nagler dominated all three of their matches to ensure an undefeated record in the round robin. First, the pair won 6/1 6/0 over Arthur Drane and Manney Tancer, then 6/4 6/3 over Beth Winthrop and Brad Dellenbaugh, and finally 6/3 6/3 over Steve DeVoe and Dan Paquette. Manney and Arthur recovered from their initial and went on to win both subsequent matches to secure the second place and qualification in Sunday’s Final.

B Division

B division had a much larger disparity between the top and bottom teams’ handicaps, and as it turns out, it was no predictor of form or results. Greg Van Schaack and Averell Fisk, although being the best ranked team, failed to win a match. Haven Pell and Vern Cassin took all their matches, albeit by just 1 game, over Frank Oliveira and Steve Fazzini to finish top in the division with Mark Beaumont and Paul Bolster finishing second.

A Division

The A Division featured the father/son team of Bill and Erik Barker (Wash) who were the odds-on favorite and ruthlessly proved the point by only losing 6 games in 3 matches. This left a scramble for the runners up spot in the group, which Phil Stockton and Peter Dickinson took by besting the team of Ryan Carey and John Damon 6/5 6/2 and then Eliot Van Buskirk and James Chamberlain 6/2 6/2. Pete and Phil were looking to for a little revenge on Sunday, but alas, it never came.

Open Draw

The open draw was smaller compared to prior years due to postponed plans and other more significant obligations: an engagement, a wedding, and the arrivals of the next generation of court tennis stars.

Despite the size, the condensed draw still had the same high quality with John Lumley and Mike Gooding defending the title for the third year. Leon Smart was joined by Conor Medlow for the first time, although both previously competed in the Pell Cup. The third and final team was the father and son duo of Bill and Erik Barker, who were also competing in the A division.

Finals Interrupted

Sunday’s Finals matches began in the morning starting with the D Division in a matchup of David Thill and Peter Arment against Larry Phillips and Delaney Pothier. David and Peter steamed through the first set 6/1, but Larry and Delaney took a close second set 6/5.

In the middle of the third set with David and Peter up 4/3, Hurricane Henri made his presence known with flickering lights that eventually left everyone in the dark.

With the lights now out for good, the 2021 Pell Cup came to an end where final matches were unable to be played. The results of the group stage were used to determine the winners of each division.

In spite of the Pell Cup’s premature ending this year, the return of the tournament after a time of uncertainty brought players a feeling of normalcy and left them with a sense of excitement looking forward to 2022.

A very special thanks goes out to all of the sponsors for providing the prize fund, Ryan Carey for streaming the event on YouTube, Kathy Minevitz and Sewall Hodges for providing the Thursday night party, and Delaney Pothier, Pete Dickinson Shirley Freitag, and Jake Faulise for tending bar and assisting with setup and breakdown.