Juniors come from far and wide for Lancaster tournament

Tournament referee and tennis coach Eden Parkinson presenting the trophy to U16 champion Javier Guillen.

Sponsored by Bright Ideas for Tennis, local players were joined by others from Leeds, Blackpool, Hambleton, Bolton, Bury, Kendal, Penrith, Preston and Manchester.

Run by the Lune Road club’s junior organiser Pat Clelland and with the area’s professional coach Eden Parkinson acting as tournament referee there were events for ages 12 and under, 14 and under and 16 and under juniors over three days.

Despite heavy rain on Monday morning, the 14 and under tournament produced some great competition with Zak Dobney from Leeds beating Owen Cross from the home club in the final. Bobby Keen of St Chad’s won the plate competition.

The 14 and under girls competition was won by Izzy Dobney of Leeds with Sophie Parkinson of Lancaster the runner-up. Other competitors were Nekkisha Wilson of Hambleton and Caitlin Currie of Lancaster.

On Tuesday, in the semi -finals of the 12 and under event Jolyon Troughton of Lancaster beat Roman Shafiq of Bolton in a nail-biting match finishing with a championship tie-break.

Morgan Gardner, also from the hosts, had a hard match in the last four against fellow Lancaster member Sebastian Lujan but prevailed in a championship tie-break 10-2.

Jolyon went on to beat Morgan in the final as Blackpool’s Seb Holt won the plate.

At last with bright sunshine on Wednesday in the 16 and unders Dan Main of Lancaster had an exciting match against Ian Axford of Bury, narrowly losing in a championship tie-break 10-6.

Javier Guillen, also of Lancaster, won his semi-final and beat Ian convincingly in the final 6-2, 6-1 to become champion. Matthew Cross of Lancaster won the plate.

Tournament referee Parkinson said: “I am delighted to be able to support this important local tournament, which has attracted more entries this year.

“All the players have enjoyed match competition and have played their matches in good spirit.

“I am impressed by the high standard of play and thank organiser Pat Clelland for giving juniors these competition opportunities locally, and for all her hard work over the three days of the event.”