Just a gentle reminder to ALL tennis players from Albany or other clubs - Senior or Junior - Isle of Man resident or visitor, the annual Chrystals OPEN tournament will be held over the weekend of 19/20 May AND entries close at 6pm on Tuesday 15 May. Entries to referee, Ian Watson - e-mail ianwatsonpts@manx.net or post the entry form in the white post box in the clubroom which is emptied every day. All matches will be played on a sliding handicap, the events are Men's and Women's Singles to be played on the Saturday (19th) and Men's and Women's Doubles to be played on Sunday (20) There is good prize money available thanks to our sponsors Chrystals Estate Agents.
Our Juniors are certainly collecting results in the UK. Roch Mirski (13) played in two tournaments in Shrewsbury over the Bank Holiday weekend and won most of his matches. In a Grade 4 16 and under event he lost in the semi-final having beaten Sam Laider in the qtr/final. In another grade 4 event - this time 14 & under he was seeded No.2 and won 4 matches: 1st rd bt. Samuel Senior 4/2 4/0, qtr final bt. Ashley Hunter 4/1 4/0, s/final bt. Harry Spear 3/4 4/3 (10-3) and in the final bt Ellison Minnar 4/2 4/1. These are all good results but maybe his best was yet to come. Playing very impressively in an 18 & under event he lost a very close match with Alex Moore, who is 3 years older 4/1 1/4 (10-6). Ashley won the event. To finish off Roch won 2 matches in the consolation draw against Csognor Mar (6.2) and Dorian Puzanovic 8.1 and won the consolation draw. Even better news is that he fulfilled the criteria to get 6.2 rating which will go live in June.
The young Isle of Man 14 & Under Girls team playing inter-county at Lytham produced promising results considering the size of the counties they were playing. On the 1st day they lost 0-6 to a strong Berkshire side but recovered well to beat Cumbria 4-2 on the 2nd day. Wins for Charlotte Clarke (12), Sarah Long(12) and Caitlin Henery (12) plus the doubles for Sarah and Caitlin. On the 3rd day they lost -5 to West of Scotland with Clarke winning the one match. The other player Aailish Kelly is 13. All girls are Albany members.
Following the Girls 14 & under last weekend, where Charlotte Clarke (12) won 2 of her 3 singles matches, she has been accepted into an 16 & u grade 4 competition at Holcombe Brooks in Lancashire on 19 May. With 16 girls entered there will be plenty of tennis played. Charlotte is very grateful for the sponsorship from Tower Insurance which has helped her to travel to this tournament. Please, if any other Albany juniors are playing in the UK, let me have details and results.