Northants ladies player Laura Mineards provided the winning bonus to County LTC’s trip to Cardiff last week.
The Northampton club took six players along with three coaches to the Welsh venue they had previously visited two years earlier.
And as a good standard of tennis prevailed, Mineards came out on top in the ladies singles which she won 6-7, 6-2, 1-0 (10-4).
Other County highlights saw James Cole reach the final of the men’s singles after knocking out the number one seed in the quarter-finals, only to fall 6-2, 6-0 against the second seed in the final.
Kate Clayson reached the 16U girls singles final where she lost 6-4, 6-3 to the top seed.
Tyler reaches last four of nationals
JOE Tyler reached the semi-finals of the doubles of the 14U national championships last week at Nottingham with his regular Essex partner James Caddies, after falling in the third round of the singles.
Tyler was beaten 6-3, 6-1 by wild card entry Barnaby Smith in the singles, and along with Caddies lost to number one seeds and eventual winners Max Stewart, a full time player at Nottingham who partnered Jack Malloy, whose full time employ is at the Reed’s Academy in Surrey.
Tyler’s last 16 singles effort was matched by Jack Haworth and Shakeel Manji in the 18U event with Haworth going down 6-2, 6-4 against seventh seed Lewis Thompson while Manji was beaten 7-5, 6-2 by Josef Doddridge.
At the nationals, the county was also represented by Cameron Yuill (14U Boys Singles) and Alice Johns (18U Girls Singles).
The Northamptonshire Junior County Closed takes place all this week at County LTC in Weston Favell with the finals day on Saturday.
County ending the season on a high
A 6-2 win for County C at home to Abington A last Thursday could yet see the Church Way club end the summer with three teams in the top half of Men’s Division One.
James Whybrow/Tony Pratt beat Amrik Takhar/Pete Skerrett 6-4, 7-6 as well as Neil Caswell/Dominic Sefton 6-2, 6-0 while Mike Musson/Henry Masters lost 6-7, 5-7 to Takhar/Skerrett but beat Caswell/Sefton 6-2, 7-5.
Duston United A men made sure of a quick return to Division One after clinching the Division Two runners-up spot behind Collingtree A, with an 8-0 victory against Dallington D in which the pairs of Ian McIlwaine/David Barr and Lee Morris/Jason Hillier dropped only 14 games all evening.
Northampton E are Men’s Division Three champions while King’s Park reign supreme in Division Four.
Mixed Division Two action last Thursday night saw Northampton C earn promotion, but miss out on the title to Duston United A when they could only secure a 5-3 win over Abington B. That said, the night was even more frustrating for Abington who would have been promoted in place of the Cherry Orchard club, had they won the match 6-2.
Stars on the night were the Abington pair of Tim Walden/Hayley Wincott who beat Sheila Claucherty/Simon Constable 6-3, 6-4 and also Andy Krzyzanowski/Karen Hone 6-4, 7-6 while Abington’s Steve Summers/Jo Pearson halved 6-4, 3-6 with Claucherty/Constable.