For the past 12 weeks, the main attraction at Tennis Club Kordin has been the Simpatia Crai team tournament, sponsored by Mr and Mrs. Joe Vella of Mimosa street G’Mangia.

During the qualifying phase, the six participating teams played each other over two rounds. Many encounters were very close with the result that after the first round there were only few points separating the leading team from the bottom one.

Midway the second round, certain teams began to lose ground. It was only then that Team “C” of Marco Ricci and Team “A” of Horace Portelli consolidated their first and second positions and made sure of a place in the semi-finals.

On the other hand, Teams “D” of Clint Cassar,“E” of Esther Muscat and “F” of Joe Vella had a great battle between them to obtain the two remaining places in the semis. Teams “E” and “F” achieved their aim.

In the semi-finals, Teams “C” played against Team “F” and Team “A” encountered team “E”. Teams “C” of Marco Ricci and “A” of Horace Portelli started as hot favourites to reach the final. However, this was not to happen as Team “C”, which led throughout the qualifying round, was soundly beaten by Joe Vella’s team.

The other semi-final proved to be more balanced. Horace Portelli’s team won the first two rubbers and drew the third. Till then everything was pointing to a Vella-Portelli clash in the final.

However, Esther Muscat, captain of Team “E” had other ideas. In fact, Team “E” won the 4th and 5th. Rubbers to bring the score 5 -5. From then on, Muscat’s team never looked back and continued on its winning track to beat Team “A” 11-5 thus gaining the right to play in the Final against Team “F” the following day.

The final of “Crai team tournament will surely be inscribed in the annals of Tennis Club Kordin as the most dramatic match in the history of the club. Team “E” started the encounter on a very positive note by winning the first two encounters, those of the Men B/C and the Ladies C categories.

With the score already four points to nil in favour of Team “E” many were predicting an easy victory for Muscat’s team. As usual, Joe Vella mounted a great comeback by winning the next two rubbers thus bringing the score to four-all. The fifth and sixth rubbers were drawn. By the end of the eighth rubber the score read 8-8.

The ninth and last rubber brought with it much nail-biting both by the players of both teams and by their numerous supporters who surrounded Court One to follow the much complicated proceedings.

The first set of this rubber was won by Muscat’s team by the score 6-3 thus, bringing the score to 9-8 in favour of Team “E”. The second set was more balanced and, at one time, it was five-all.

At this stage, Team “E” lead Team “F” by 81 to 79 games which meant that, if Vella’s team (Team “F”) won this set by the score of 7-5 the number of sets would have been nine-all and the number of games would have been 81 All. With such a situation, Vella would have won the tournament due to the fact that he had won the important tie-break which was played during the Ladies’ C encounter.

Had the score gone to six-all and the set won by Vella’s team (7-6) then, the number of games would have been 81 to 80 in favour of Muscat. This would have meant that Team E would have captured the trophy on difference of games.

Nevertheless, all this complication did not materialise as Esther Muscat’s Team also won the second set of this last encounter with the score reading 10-8. A dramatic end to a very interesting 2007 Crai tournament.