Lexus Ilkley Open: Rain, rain go away as Yorkshire tennis tournament battles on despite the weather

Persistent rain has done its best to ruin the Lexus Ilkley Open at the idyllic lawn tennis and squash club on the banks of the River Wharfe but the event has ploughed on with good humour and defiance.

On Friday morning, on the sixth day of the tournament, a blanket of cloud once again hung over the moors, obscuring the view of the Cow and Calf on the tops and enveloping the venue below in the kind of fine rain that would soak Peter Kay through.

For the umpteenth time this week, the covers were on the courts, pools of water formed on the banks of blue seats around the two showcourts and puddles became lakes under the tyres of the row upon row of 4x4s in the car park.

But still the people came, tip-toeing through the mud towards an ever-expanding hospitality village full of big-wigs sipping champagne, and to a tented village thronged with people hitting the drinks a little earlier than planned.

And it wasn’t just the hob-nobbers and tennis fans. On the adjacent courts to the side, 60 schoolkids are playing racquet sports, their drenched PE shirts proving no barrier to their enjoyment as they splash around having fun. That scene has been replicated all week as schools from across the region take up the invite to come and experience Ilkley’s moment in what they had hoped would be sunshine.

Back towards the showcourts stands the stage that each night has hosted bands and singers from the Lightning (everything but) Seeds to Marvin Humes as part of the Beyond the Baseline concerts.

Every now and again the constant hum of rain on marquee roofs is disrupted by the announcement from the tannoy that reminds you why you’re there in the first place: “The tennis will begin at 12pm…the tennis will begin at 12.30pm…play will now get underway at 1.30pm…”

For as well as an organising committee led by Ilkley LTSC and supported by the Lawn Tennis Association has done in gradually, year upon year, making this an event as much as a tennis tournament, the constant rain and unpredictable forecasts have tried their best to dampen the mood.

Sunday was the clearest day, Monday was interrupted but they played on until 9.24pm, but since then it has been a slog and a stress.

Only 35 minutes of play was possible on Thursday, leaving some of the players utilising the facilities in the clubhouse for a third straight day without any action.

With the weather forecasted to improve over the weekend, they could be in for a bumper day on Saturday as organisers cram as many games onto the outside courts as possible to catch up.

But club committee member and tournament director Rik Smith gave up looking at meteorological radar screens long ago.

“I don’t know if I just give up on the weather forecast,” laughed Smith, ruefully. “Everyone has been telling me from Friday onwards we’d be all good, and yet here we are considering having to put a few matches inside. It’s been stressful. The biggest problem we’ve got is the unpredictability of what we’ve been dealing with. We’ve gone through periods at the start of the week when the weather was meant to be worse than it actually was and we caught a bit of luck, and then later in the week we’ve had periods like Thursday where we thought we’d be able to get out later in the day and the rain hasn’t cleared.

“At the moment we feel slightly deflated, which is what we want to see the state of the covers on centre court, not blown up.

“We’re at that stage now where if we get tennis on at a reasonable time, we will clear the schedule and will make Saturday a bumper day.

“Normally we only have six matches by the penultimate day, but this Saturday we could have 18, so you’re going to get your money’s worth as a fan but even that brings with it a lot of problems for us because you schedule a tournament to reduce the number of officials towards the back end of the week when there’s fewer players.

“So we’re having to juggle a lot of things. This is as tough a tournament as I’ve known in the five years I’ve been doing this job.”

Despite the challenges that have hampered the tennis schedule, the event itself is proving a success, which is in itself a reward for the incremental improvements Ilkley makes every year to a tournament now in its 10th year.

“A lot of what we have built is the peripheral things around the tennis to make sure that regardless of whether the tennis is or isn’t happening, there is still a good day out for spectators,” said Smith.

“With street food offering, retail units that are new this year, people can still come down for eight, nine hours - see no tennis - but still enjoy their day.

“That said, there comes a point where the weather has been so consistently poor that even the peripheral stuff that we put on is then getting hampered and affected. I’m just hoping we get good crowds in Saturday and Sunday and people stick with us.”

The clouds finally broke shortly after lunch and the punters emerged from under the marquees to finally take in a bit of tennis and a feel a bit of sunshine on their face.

They saw a rising British star, Katie Swan, knock out top seed Viktorija Golubic in the WTA 125 event on centre court.

“The players have shown a huge amount of patience, they’ve been very understanding,” said Smith.

“I think they’re seeing the amount of work that’s going in to get them playing outdoors.

“The courts are in fantastic condition, the grounds team are working very hard to get the courts open.”

Smith concluded: “If we end up with good weather Saturday, Sunday, loads of tennis and some thrilling matches, we might forget about the three or four days that have been really tough on everyone.”