The Tournament provides the Essex Senior County Team Selectors with the ability to watch established players and through invitation, assess the ability of our promising Junior Players from the age of 15-18. The format has proved popular to all players participating. 16 Players took part over the 2 days of competition in a 'Forwards - Backwards Draw'. Matches were played over the best of 2 Tie-Break Sets with a third set decided by the Champions Tie-Breaker [First to 10 Points with a 2 Point Advantage].
Saturday saw the first 2 rounds of the Tournament completed with some extremely exciting tennis. In the top half of the draw there were good wins for Chris Gardiner, the No 1 Seed, over Adam Paterson in a close match, 6-3, 6-4, and an excellent result over the highly rated Matthew Byford by David Watson, 6-3, 6-2. The bottom half of the draw saw Ben Higgins come through a gruelling match with Jack Stammers 6-4, 7-6[2]. Sam Pedder had an equally long match against Daniel Bagguley, the result being 7-6[4], 6-4.
Sunday was interesting initially to see some of the Senior Players nursing their aches and pains, an indication of how much the Junior Players had pushed them on the previous day. The semi-final lineup saw Chris Gardiner take on Mark Klein with Chris winning 6-3, 6-2. Ben Higgins then played our vastly experienced doubles expert, Richard Barham, called in as a replacement for Sam Pedder. Unfortunately 'Evergreen Dicky Barham' could not turn back the years enough with Ben managing to outlast Richard to win 6-4, 6-4. It was a magnificent sight to see Richard turning back the years to when he used to play Singles.
The Final saw the Number 1 Seed, Chris Gardiner, pitched against Ben Higgins, the Number 3 Seed. In an extremely close fought match lasting over an hour and a half, Ben was the victor coming through, 7-6[5] 6-4. The Final produced some really marvelous tennis with the match swinging both ways throughout the various stages of the Final.
My thanks to Will Calvert who assisted me throughout the weekend's play and additional thanks to all the supporters who viewed some really great, top quality, tennis over the weekend as well.
Graham Ray
ECLTA Selection Committee