This was the 67th year that the Essex Open Tournament had been held and the tenth occasion that it has been hosted by Billericay Lawn Tennis Club. Yet again its success was due in no small part to the enthusiastic agreement of the club’s members including about 40 of them volunteering for everything from car parking to catering, bar duty to bin emptying and toilet cleaning to litter collection! All tournaments need sponsors to ensure their viability and we were delighted that Sound Financial Group agreed to be the tournaments main sponsor again this year.
The tournament is a Grade 3, LTA sanctioned event, which is open to all junior and mini players and additionally has a Men’s & ladies Open section to cater for the Over 18’s. Singles, Doubles, Mixed Doubles and Consolation events were run in all age groups. The tournament attracted around 220 players with the majority of players coming from Essex but Middlesex, Kent, Suffolk and Surrey were all well represented as well.
Tournament Organisers Les Cambridge and Richard Lehman (the club’s Chairman and Treasurer respectively) were absolutely delighted with how well the tournament was received with numerous parents and players commenting how well run it is.
Once again we employed a professional tennis referee, David Fuchs. David, in his normal calm and competent manner, led a team of independent LTA court supervisors and did an excellent job - we were delighted at the professional and highly efficient manner in which they all carried out their responsibilities.
For the first time in years we had a number of disruptions for rain – notably on the Thursday when the heavens opened but the courts drained superbly and we soon made up time.
386 matches were played comprising 790 sets and 7,163 games which was considerably higher than last year though interestingly the total aggregate duration of over 360 hours was some 80 hours less than in 2012! The longest match of the tournament was when Jacob Ducksbury beat Daniel Stevenson in the U16 Boys 1st Round (5-7, 6-4, 6-3) in a staggering 3 hours and 25 minutes.
Oddly, 11 water bottles were abandoned on the referees desk, 9 biros disappeared and two pairs of scssors were lent out but not returned!
In the Open Men’s Singles event Matthew Pearce (1) (Westcliff Hard LTC) beat David Wright (6) (Redbridge) 6-3, 6-3 . Mathew Pearce then went on to win the Open Mixed Doubles (with Emily Watts of Rayleigh LTC) AND the Open Men’s Doubles (with Harry Randle of Thorpe Bay) – a magnificent display of attacking tennis.
It was good to see Helen Parish (1) (Grosvenor), back from a serious injury, winning the Open Ladies Singles by beating Dorothea Joy Laurencia 6-4, 6-1.
Jared Linzell (1) (Compete Academy, Bath) won the U18 Boys beating Benjamin Clark (2) (Cambridge LTC) in the final 6-4, 4-6, 7-5.
The day after finals day, work started on the 3 new artificial clay courts (replacing the 3 tarmacadam) complete with covering Airdome that will be finished by the 1st October and thereafter will be up every year from 1st October until 31st March – an investment of nearly £250,000 intended to maintain Billericay LTC’s position as one of the leading tennis clubs in Essex.
Richard Lehman
Hon Treasurer BLTC and tournament organiser