(By Tim Connelly)
The 25th Cape Fear Open Tournament
The 25th Cape Fear Open took place Saturday, Nov. 4 in Fayetteville, North Carolina and for many of us, there was a déjà vu feeling about the tournament that almost made you think you’d been there before.

There was the great camaraderie between all these tough competitors that you just don’t feel anywhere else. There was the efficient way it was run by tournament master, Richie Perez. There were the ultra entertaining matches between Tim Connelly and Jim McQueen that made you feel like you were in a time warp- I mean- when’s the last time you saw an entire match between guys with a combined rating of close to 3700 without seeing even one loop? They both hit the ball from side to side while playing excellent defense and cutting unforced errors down to a minimum. Long rallys and long games (there were 3 deuce games out of the 7 with one going 19-17) ruled both of their matches with Tim coming out ahead both times and taking 3rd Place.

But of course, the thing we’ve all experienced before- not once, not twice but 10 times- is the championship form of Gregg Robertshaw. Gregg beat Laurence Nadeau in the finals in an entertaining match where Gregg once again did what Gregg does. After having beat Laurence in 5 games- actually having to come back from 2 losses in the first 3 games- to win the number #1 seed, Gregg used his serving and spin advantages to take the finals 3 straight.

Laurence once again proved too tough for Tim, making a strong comeback from 6-1 down in the 4th game while down 2-1 before closing Tim out in the 5th. Gregg beat Hall of Famer Jim McQueen to set up the final.
There were other outstanding matches. Fred van Nynatten took a match off Ralph Guillory for the first time and grabbed some rating points in the process. The big winner for the day in the battle for points was Glenn Goodrick who picked up close to 500 points with wins over Fred and Jay Nelson. He not only had some outstanding wins but played everybody tough. Congratulations Glenn!

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