Leonie MacLoughlin, the vivacious newcomer from Surrey, England who burst upon the local tennis scene by capturing the Pomander Gate Open, was introduced to the CBC Invitational by top seeds Gill Butterfield and Andy Bray and promptly discovered that all that glitters is not gold in suffering her first lost on local soil, going down to a straight sets defeat 6-2, 6-4 while playing with her husband Seamus.

It was somewhat of a rude introduction to Coral Beach because, as fate would have it, she would oppose a former school mate in Bray. In this tournament MacLoughlin is the women’s top player while Bray is seeded number one among the men. This caused MacLoughlin to remember her younger years by saying: “I was hoping that I could have played with Andy, since this would have been our first chance since our school days.” But Gill Butterfield had the inside track there.

Even so, MacLoughlin and her husband Seamus are a formidable team, and will be a force to be reckoned with in the future, once Sean gets his tennis bearing. In the meantime Leonie later gained her first victory in the CBC Invitational when she teamed with Elizabeth Hartley to defeat Janet Green and Suzette Edmead 6-0, 6-0.

Meanwhile the second-seeded pair of Ashley Brooks and Laverne Stowe defeated K. Terrell and B. Dennis in the Ladies Doubles Open, while Veronica Dunkerley had to come from a set down to beat Kim Burns 4-6, 6-0, 6-3 and Sam Maybury outlasted Samitra Ranaweera on Centre Court, winning 6-2, 6-4, while Green did have some success on the day when she teamed with John Johnston to beat C. McCoy and R. Boyles in a three-set marathon 5-7, 6-2, 6-2.

Carrol Reid and Claire Warburton opened their account in the Ladies Doubles Open section with a straight forward 6-1, 6-2 victory over J. McGlynn and C. McHarg while Elizabeth Hartley teamed with John Jacobson to beat Pat Pamplin and Mike Keyes 6-2, 6-0. This was the second defeat of the day for Pamplin who earlier let a 5-4, 40-0 lead slip away in losing to Eirian Jones 6-2, 7-6(5).

While the men’s doubles is shaping up to be the real highlight section of the week’s action, the mixed doubles will have its share of excitement as well. The second-seeded pair of Michael and Brian Way gave an indication of things to come when they eased past Marc Quig and Sean Dennis 6-1, 6-1 while Terry Smith and Eugene Simmons beat David Benevides and Chris Bardgett 6-1, 6-0.

But there are still the top seeds, John and Marc Jacobson as well as the dangerous duo of Stuart Smith and Mark Cordeiro to make a formal appearance.

The dark horses in this division could well be Fraser Moore and Samitra Ranaweera, who were getting to know each other’s game on the way to a 6-1, 6-4 victory over Graham Boyle and Bill Achtmeyer while T. Brewer and N. Kempe were too strong for A. Smith and R. Butterfield, winning 6-3, 6-2. In one other contest that lasted more than two hours, D. Hamlen and J. McKnight outlasted P. Ballantine and J. Walker 6-0, 3-6, 7-6 (5) in the century mixed.