Kershaw Cup - Manchester 2018

This year's Kershaw Cup was a much closer-contested affair than has been seen for a while. The ante-post favourite, John Prenn, had been suffering from a shoulder injury so had not had his normal pre-tournament practise. All the remaining members of the field were pretty close in handicap and this threw up some tense first-round matches.

The second seed, Philip Shaw-Hamilton, narrowly overcame Jamie Bebb 6/5 6/5, having to come from 2/5 down in the first set in order to do so. The evergreen John Ward had a titanic battle with Jonathan Fisher, finally prevailing 6/5 in the third set and Fred Satow beat Richard Moore in straight sets. John Prenn also win in straight sets over Ronald Paterson.

In the semis, John P beat John W comfortably but Philip and Fred indulged in an epic which could have gone either way before Philip prevailed 6/4 in the third.

The final was a game of several halves, if that were possible. Philip, playing precision tennis, took the first set 6/2 as John succumbed to an unaccustomed series of unforced errors. However, the energy expended in his quarter- and semi-final seemed to catch up with Philip as John tightened his own game and took it to love. The final set was nip-and-tuck but John was always ahead with Philip trying to play catch-up. John won 2/6 6/0 6/4. A terrific final.

In the B singles, Paul Butler led throughout but was against a thoroughly stubborn opponent in the form of Tony Harrison from Jesmond. Tony was never ahead until the final game bur, having got ahead, was not going to relinquish his lead and won 6/5.