Ed Thompson, left, tennis director at the Boys & Girls Club of Southwestern Oregon in Coos Bay, and Bill Sweet, right, of North Bend, helped the Oregon team win the 48th Denny Cardinall Challenge Cup, held in Vancouver, B.C., Canada, recently. The men posed with the trophy in front of the William J. Sweet Memorial Tennis Center this week. World Photo by Madeline Steege.

Local players help win trophy for Oregon

By John Gunther, Sports Editor
Saturday, April 15, 2006 11:54 AM PDT

Ed Thompson carefully carried the large silver punch bowl across the tennis courts at the William J. Sweet Memorial Tennis Center early this week.

He and Bill Sweet then posed with the trophy for a picture that commemorates their role in bringing the trophy, called the Denny Cardinall Challenge Cup, back to Oregon for another year.

Thompson, the teaching pro at the tennis center, and Sweet, a longtime member, joined several other players from around the state in competing against similar squads in Washington and British Columbia, Canada, for the trophy in the oldest international senior team tennis tournament in the United States.

Each played two matches in the event, held late last month at the Vancouver Lawn Tennis and Badminton Club in Vancouver, B.C.

Thompson, who is 60, teamed with former Coos Bay and Marshfield High School graduate John Popplewell, who now lives in Portland, in the 60s age group. They lost their first match to probably the most-decorated pair of players on any of the teams. Bob Bardley is a former Canadian Davis Cup Team member and past national champion and John Frazier also is a past Canadian champion.

“I hadn't played against that caliber in a long, long time,” Thompson said. “These guys are still traveling for their country. They were sharp.”

Thompson and Popplewell bounced back to beat Washington's 60s doubles team in a tiebreaker.

“I had a great time,” said Thompson, who hasn't played competitive tennis in more than a decade. “It was a thrill to play and it was a thrill to compete against those caliber of players. It was great to get those juices flowing.”

Sweet, who is 86, played down a division, competing against players in the 80s division because there weren't any others in the 85s age group, and won both his matches.

Sweet started playing as a boy growing up and then took 25 years off before picking the game up again in 1964.

He now plays about four mornings a week at the tennis center, which bears his father's name.

William J. Sweet built the first two tennis courts in Bandon when the family first moved there - Bill was 2 at the time. He and his brothers, Piercy and Donald, donated the start-up money in honor of their dad to get the indoor tennis center project started - though many other donations followed.

Now Bill Sweet is one of the regulars at the center.

“I keep playing to stay healthy,” he said.

Sweet was playing in his 20th Denny Cardinall Challenge and figures he has won about half his matches.

He's one of six players in their 80s who regularly suit up for Oregon. His usual doubles player is 88, but was competing in a USTA event in San Diego the weekend of the competition.

Thompson is impresses by the older men.