The British Open Seniors Clay Court Championships were, once again, played at The West Hants Club, Bournemouth from 26 May to 2 June 2018. Changeable weather made this a challenging week for organisers and players alike, given that matches were played in hot & sunny weather, wind, wet, very wet and misty weather before returning to dry and sunny conditions for the last two days.
This year, we had a large number of entries from players, who were world ranked in the top 10 of their particular age group. Total entries were 412 and 454 matches were completed throughout the week - the majority of which on the Blue American Clay courts at West Hants.
Croatia's Iva Saric followed up her win at the Indoor Championships in January, by adding the Women's 35 Singles title to her collection. This event was played in round robin format, with Holly Mowling as runner-up.
Michelle Oldham retained her Women's 45 Singles title with a win over her doubles partner, Teresa Catlin and they went on to win the Women's 35 Doubles title, defeating local pairing Jane Bingham and Debbie-Louise Hale. This was the second year in a row that Michelle had 'done the double' in these age groups.
A similar story in the Women's 75 event, where Frances Maclennan beat her doubles partner, Jenny Waggott for the Singles title and they teamed up to defeat last year's winners, Felicity Thomas and Ruth Weston in the Doubles final.
Patricia Wire and Patricia Peal won the Women's 60 Doubles title, played in a round robin format and then faced each other across the net for the Singles title, with victory going to Patricia Wire.
Another event where Doubles winners faced each other in the Singles final was the Men's 85 age group. Tom Baron and Gordon Oates had paired up to beat John Draper and Leonard Lawrence to take the doubles title, then took to the court the following day for the Singles final. Gordon Oates was victor on this occasion, reversing the result of the Singles Final at this year's Indoor Championships.
There were popular local winners in the Men's 35 Doubles event, where James and Jonathan Pankhurst defeated Michael Ellames and Aleksander Kazcmarek to lift the trophy.
Former GB Davis Cup players, John Feaver and Robin Drysdale, teamed up to take the Men's 65 Doubles title, defeating Germany's Josef Baumgartner and Austria's Helmut Ritter in the Final. There was some consolation for Baumgartner, as he defeated France's Serge Gresy to take the Men's 65 Singles title.
France's Alain Moracchini was the victor over defending Champion Keith Gilbert, in a hard fought 3 set final of the Men's 55 Singles event - Alain was returning to the clay courts of West Hants for the first time since he won the Men's 50 Singles title in 2015.
Christine French took the Women's 55 Singles trophy, defeating her doubles partner, Rosemary Dennis - unfortunately, the double was not to be for the top seeds, as the Women's 50 Doubles title was won by 4th seeds, Emma Bowen and Hazel Lindfield, on a retirement in the middle of the second set, after Bowen and Lindfield had won the first set.
Paul French retained the Men's 60 Singles title, to maintain his dominance of this event at Seniors' Tennis GB national events.
Mary Durrans retained her Women's 85 Singles title, again played in round robin format, with Anne Williams runner-up.
The Men's 80 age group finals were dominated by players from the USA - world number one, King Van Nostrand took home the Singles and Doubles titles, defeating his Doubles partner, Nick Ourusoff, in the final. They had previously teamed up to defeat Tony McBride and Alan McNeilage in the Doubles final.
World number one, Ellie Krocke (NED), retained her Women's 70 Singles title for an amazing 5th year in a row, defeating June Peck in this year's final.
June Pearce was another familiar name on the Roll of Honour, as she added the Women's 80 Singles title to her collection, after previously winning this event in 2015 and 2016.
In a fabulous achievement, Henk Nijeboer and Switzerland's Petr Kolacek were also repeat winners, winning the Men's 75 and Men's 70 Singles for the third successive year. Petr Kolacek then teamed up with Peter Bretherton to take the Men's 70 Doubles title, beating Peter Clover and Chris Ornstein in the Final.
In a repeat of the 2017 final and result, Pauline Fisher defeated Marjory Love in the Women's 65 Singles final and once again teamed up with Shirley Fox to retain the Women's 65 Doubles title.
A number of Singles and Doubles Finals were scheduled and played throughout the week - however, Seniors Tennis GB President Charles Trippe and Chairman Keith Bland were kept busy with presenting duties on Saturday 2 June. Charles Trippe was also in attendance to present trophies earlier in the week.
Photos of the Presentations for each event are available on the Seniors Tennis GB Facebook page and full results are available on our Seniors Competitions page.