First Season of Greater Hartford Paddle League

March 1, 2022
Longmeadow, MA

League Administrator Matt Arciero writes: I am sharing the results and pictures of the inaugural season of the Greater Hartford Paddle League (GHPL), which APTA CEO Amin Khadduri helped us setup. On Sunday February 7, we held the finals of the playoffs hosted at the Field Club of Longmeadow, with the FCL (Longmeadow, MA; Captain Craig Waddington) winning the league title over Hartford Golf Club (West Hartford, CT; Captain Phil Cameron). The third-place match was between Hopbrook Tennis Club (Simsbury, CT; captain Pat Sullivan) and Suffield Country Club (Suffield, CT; Captain Brad Hoffman) with Hopbrook taking third.

A few highlights from the season and today's playoffs were:

1) We saw rosters of each of the four founding clubs grow over the course of the season.
2) The league title came down to the fifth and deciding match between Craig Waddington and Alex Seiler of the FCL vs. Phil Cameron and Matt Crowther of HGC, with Waddington/ Seiler winning in straight sets for the 3-2 team victory.
3) The playoff format of having the first place matches and third place matches all at the same venue with food and drink made for a great atmosphere and brought a lot of people together. Thanks to the Field Club of Longmeadow for hosting.
4) John Hughes (2018 APTA National Champion) played for the FCL during the season and in today's playoff finals match.

A lot of fun and good energy from the season and the playoff event has us setting our sights on expanding and growing the league next season by inviting more clubs and creating more divisions.