British Under 18 Handicap Singles Tournament
Alex Garside, Gus James, WINNER William Flynn, Paul Weaver
Once again Seacourt hosted the National U18 Handicap Singles Competition just before Christmas. A total of 27 juniors entered from many different clubs across the country.
The event commenced with a qualifying competition for the very youngest players aged 6 to 10 years old! This was won by Barnaby Tambling (Seacourt) who went forward to take part in the main event.
The “B” competition took place on the Saturday for entries with higher handicaps. Some great play resulted in an all Seacourt final. Ollie Jameson came out on top defeating Edward Charlton 8/1 in a good match between 2 very promising youngsters.
And so to the main event. 16 boys & girls took part and produced some outstanding Tennis with many close matches as you would expect in a handicap event. In the first semi-final William Flynn (Seacourt) played last year's winner George Charlton (Seacourt). William proved too strong winning 6/3 to take his place in the final. The second semi was between Gus James (Petworth) & Nick Newton (Petworth & Canford) with Gus going through to the final with a 6/4 win.
In the final William who had looked unbeatable all day finally came up against a really tough opponent. The final was an exhibition of superb tennis and it was difficult to believe that they were both just 13 years old! It was anyone’s match for most of the game but finally William powered his way through to take the National title 8/5.
Our thanks go out to the T&RA for sponsoring the event and to the Seacourt members who once again gave up their valuable court time to promote junior Tennis.
Paul Weaver
Director of Junior Tennis UK
Alex Garside, WINNER Ollie Jameson, Paul Weaver, Edward Charlton