Hoole LTC were again great hosts to the Annual County Championships (18th – 22nd September). It was a good sized entry with qualifying events required for both the Men’s singles and doubles.
The qualifying event for the Men’s singles resulted in Isaac Eyo and Joe Evans winning two matches each and taking a deserved place in the main draw. All the 1st round matches saw no major surprises with straight set victories for 3 of the 4 seeded players, however Jamie Oakes the number two seed was involved in a very close match with junior county player Charlie Woods which went to a final set tie break. Jamie’s greater experience made all the difference, taking it 10 – 6 in a hotly contested match. The quarter finals again saw the seeded players winning in straight sets, although Jamie Oakes had another battle this time with Dominic Poulston, another of our very promising juniors, but winning 6 – 3, 7- 6 (2).
Both semi finals served up some excellent tennis. Danny Urey the top seed played our number 1 junior Alfie King and it was Alfie’s greater consistency and him winning key points that made the difference. A scoreline of 6 – 1, 6 – 2 did not do justice to the way Danny played. The second semi final pitted the two most experienced players in the tournament together with Pat Talbot coming out on top against Jamie Oakes in two closely contested sets 7 – 5, 7 – 5. The final was played in very different conditions to the previous days with the artificial clay courts being much slower after heavy overnight rain. This did not make a big difference to the way Alfie played and he again played with impressive consistency and extra weight of shot resulting in him defeating Pat 6 – 2, 6 – 1. Alfie deserves special congratulations for becoming the youngest ever Men’s County singles champion at just 16 years of age.
The ladies singles draw was smaller than the men’s and involved just 8 junior players. Top seed Susanna Thompson defeated Korinne Roberts 6 – 4, 6 – 2 and then followed this up beating Amy McMahon in the semi final 7 – 6 (2), 6 – 2. In the other half of the draw it was the number two seed and last year’s champion Jess Mclean that won through to the final defeating Harriet Birkett 6 – 4, 6 – 3 and then Edie McGuiness 6 – 4, 6 – 4. The final proved to be the closest of matches, with Susanna taking the first set 6 – 4, and then Jess bouncing back to win the second set 6 -2. A final set tie break saw both girls playing some really long rallies and Jess raced into a 6 – 2 lead. Susanna pulled it back in typical style to make it 6 – 6, before Jess took the last 4 points to retain her singles title. Congratulations to both girls for producing a high quality match.
The Men’s doubles event proved to be both entertaining and very competitive. Max Elston & Dom Poulston had won through qualifying in the men’s event and went on to reach the semi finals after taking the first set 6 – 4 against Jamie Oakes & Ben Mckie and when 2 – 0 up in the second set Jamie unfortunately had to pull out with an injury. They found the number 2 seeds Nick Fance & Danny Urey a different proposition and it was Nick and Danny who reached the final after a close first set 6 – 4, but they then dominated the second set 6 – 0. In the top half of the draw the Men’s county team pairing of Alex Grocott & Alfie King defeated the junior county players of Regan O’brien & Charlie Woods 6 - 2, 6 - 3. Sean Cove & Dan Longshaw reached the semi final with a convincing win, defeating Joe Evans & Allan Morton 6 – 2, 6- 1, however in Alex & Alfie they were up against a pair playing at a consistently high level and it was Alex & Alfie who won in straight sets 6 – 2, 6 -2.
The doubles final proved to be an excellent match despite the far from easy conditions with heavy rain falling. Alex & Alfie took the first set 6 – 3, however the second set was especially close and looked like going to a tie break before Alex & Alfie broke serve at 6 – 5 to take the set 7 – 5 to become County Champions.
Just 6 pairs entered the Ladies doubles. The closest of the matches was the semi final in which Ruby Roberts & Susanna Thompson played Jessica McLean & Amy Mcmahon. They shared the two sets so it was all down to a final set tie break which Ruby and Susanna won 10 – 6. The top seeds were the experienced county team players Rhona Cook & Kim Schmider who had a convincing win in their semi final against Harriet Birkett & Mahala Ginjupalli 6 – 1, 6 – 0. The final proved to be a similar story with Rhona & Kim dominating the net against Ruby and Susanna resulting in another similar score of 6 – 1, 6 – 1. Congratulations go to Rhona & Kim in winning their first County doubles title.
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