Ballymena LTC be the first club in Northern Ireland to trial Thirty30 Tennis

Email received from Barry Clarke, Head Coach at Ballymena Lawn Tennis Club, 13 September 2017:

Subject: Thirty30 senior tournament

Message: Hello! Firstly I think this is a fantastic idea! We are thinking of using this format for our next senior doubles tournament! I am head coach of Ballymena Lawn Tennis Club! I was wondering if we did this, could we send photos and a write-up for you guys to publish! Loving the idea!

We are trying it in a doubles format. Will it just be exactly the same rules as for singles?

Thirty30 reply: Thanks for your enthusiasm Barry!

No problem, please send photos and a write-up and they will be published.

The rules are identical for both doubles and singles:

In doubles, after the initial 2 games in a set are played, the subsequent groups of 4 games are played with all 4 players serving before changing ends again.

During a set of Thirty30 there will be no more than three change-of-ends, i.e. after two, six and ten games played.

The Ballymena event, organised for Saturday 14 October 2017, is using a ‘one set shoot out’ format, i.e. if the set reaches 6-all, there is no tie-break, and a ‘Golden’ Thirty30 game is played to decide the winner of the set, i.e. by 7 games to 6.

Note that at the start of each game the score of “Thirty-Thirty” is announced instead of “Thirty-All”, i.e. a Thirty30 Tennis match.

For more information on Ballymena LTC, please see:

https://en-gb.facebook.com/Ballymenalawntennisclub/

A report and photos will follow after the event is completed.

Cricket has Twenty20

Tennis now has Thirty30!