A much-loved annual tennis tournament was held at Burnham-On-Sea\u2019s Avenue Tennis Club last weekend in memory of a former local player.<\/p>\n
The Jo Gooden Doubles Tournament took place on Saturday 18th October at the Avenue Club in The Grove, drawing players and spectators for a day of friendly but competitive tennis.<\/p>\n
The event, first held in 1988, commemorates Jo Gooden (n\u00e9e Champion), a talented junior player who represented club, county and country before her tragic death in a road accident at the age of 23.<\/p>\n
Her father, Dick Champion, established the tournament in her memory, aiming to create a fun and inclusive day of tennis for players of all abilities.<\/p>\n
This year\u2019s tournament saw seven pairs compete in a round-robin format, with plenty of close matches and good-natured rivalry. The winners were Pippa Lawton and Jacqui French, who edged ahead by just three games over joint runners-up Angela Tinnion & Clare Brewer, and Louise Lloyd & Marion Champion.<\/p>\n
Three members of the Champion family took part in the event \u2013 Marion (Jo\u2019s sister-in-law), and nieces Emma and Lucy \u2013 continuing the family\u2019s long-standing connection with the club.<\/p>\n
Jo\u2019s sister, Jean Booth, was also present to present the prizes and brought along her now-traditional homemade cakes for the afternoon tea.<\/p>\n
Avenue Tennis Club Chairman said: \u201cIt was a wonderful day of tennis, laughter and memories \u2013 just as Dick Champion always intended. We\u2019re proud to keep this tradition going and to remember Jo and her family in such a positive way.\u201d<\/p>\n
The Avenue Tennis Club continues to offer a wide range of activities for all ages and abilities, including fortnightly Wednesday Supper Nights, Pickleball sessions, junior and adult coaching, and family-friendly Friday socials. For more, see www.avenuetennis.com<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"A much-loved annual tennis tournament was held at Burnham-On-Sea\u2019s Avenue Tennis Club last weekend in memory of a…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":227934,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[38],"tags":[101,118,56,54,55],"class_list":["post-227933","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-tennis","tag-sports","tag-tennis","tag-uk","tag-united-kingdom","tag-unitedkingdom"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/227933","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=227933"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/227933\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/227934"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=227933"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=227933"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=227933"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}