County LTC staged a form of dress rehearsal for the Northants Junior County Closed at the end of this month when it hosted the Jaytrac Open last week.
Northants’ junior showpiece starts on Tuesday August 27, running through to the Saturday, which means a third different venue in three years, on the heels of King’s Park and Corby.
The Grade 4 Jaytrac event saw players compete from as far afield as Oxfordshire, Wiltshire, Surrey and Kent at the Weston Favell venue, adding spice to the event.
However, local winners were still prevalent, with Brackley’s Guy Wilkinson excelling in the younger categories, winning both mini red and green competitions. Playing at his home club, Piers Bodily was successful in the 14U boys’ singles final, beating number one seed Jonathan Reed (Bucks) 6-1, 6-3. This was all the more worthy as Bodily lost in the semi-final of the 12s.
The 18U boys’ singles saw a round robin finale with James Cole from the home club emerge on top, ahead of Ben Stobart and Connor Evans.
Entries are now being accepted by Carol Pawlusek for the Northants Junior County Closed and can be made by ringing 07763 246544, by e-mail at Carolyn.pawlusek@lta.org.uk or online at www.lta.org.uk (tournament code NTP13S0473.
Jaytrac Open final results - Mini Red (8U): Guy Wilkinson (Brackley) bt Sam Thomas (Northampton LTC) 10-7. Mini Orange (9U): Guy Wilkinson (Brackley) bt William Eckford (Bucks) 3-7, 7-4, 7-6. Mini Green (10U): Archie Reid (King’s Park) bt Umar Gill (Bucks) 4-0.
12U Boys Singles: Jack Pinington-Jones (Kent) bt Max Evans (Duston) 7-5, 6-0. 12U Girls Singles: Abigail Pearce bt Laura Heathfield (County) 4-0.
14U Boys: Piers Bodily bt Jonathan Reed 6-1, 6-3.
16U Boys: Sam Smith (Dallington) bt Henry Masters (County) 6-0, 6-1.
18U Boys Doubles: James Cole/Alex McCabe bt Ben Stobart/Joel Wood 6-3, 6-2. 18U Girls Doubles: Kate Clayson/Emma Dutton bt Jessica Buchanan/Imogen Arrowsmith 6-3, 7-5.
County over-35s finish second in Eastbourne
Northants’ Over 35 men finished second in Group 6 at Eastbourne after three days spent on the south coast defining their national weekend.
The county took a strong side consisting of James Buswell, Andre Porritt, Mark Taylor, Jonathan Searle and James Halsey but were handed a first day walkover as the Isle of Man dropped out.
Saturday brought a 3-2 win over Northumberland with the best of the action featuring a 6-4, 7-6 (7-3) doubles win for Taylor/Searle, from 4-1 down in the second set.
In the words of skipper Taylor, group winners Sussex were ‘ridiculously strong’, boasting a 3.2 and a 4.1 rated player at the top of its order. “They were all rated higher than us,” said Taylor.
In the circumstances, the Northants pairs of Buswell/Porritt and Taylor/Searle were unlucky to just miss out in third set championship tie-breaks.
Rain puts County’s title party on ice
Absolute confirmation of County A’s successful defence of the Men’s Division One crown may have to wait a few more days but surely no-one can question the fact it will happen.
Four sets on Monday night at Northampton B would have done the trick, but torrential rain set the process back for a while.
On Friday night County had all but clinched the title when they breezed past Abington A 8-0 with the pairs of Barry Wilson/Dave Garrett and Ben Foster/Dean Gayton holding sway, although the latter had a 7-5 set against Amrik Takhar/Pete Skerrett.
County A still have the Northampton B match in addition to a home game with Corby to score the necessary quota and that is always assuming Northampton a get maximum hauls. Northampton A could yet challenge Dallington A for second spot after Dallington’s 4-4 draw with Kettering A. Steve Guy/Andy Guy won all four sets for Dallington.
Dallington B have notched back to back wins over Wollaston and Rushmere A to confirm their top flight status for 2014.
After notching a 5-3 win over Wollaston, the Dallington B quartet of father and son pairing Patrick and Tom Punch and Richard Leder/Oli Reis, were 8-0 winners against Rushmere on Friday night. The win over Wollaston ended the visitors’ faint hopes of avoiding the drop.