A mammoth entry of 286 competitors has been received for next week’s Grade 3 82nd Felixstowe Junior Open Tennis Tournament, an increase on last Carpets and Floorings and Jackaman, Smith and Mulley, this high-quality event remains one of the most popular on the local junior tennis calendar.
In addition to the usual players coming from all over the East region, there will be competitors from Notts, Durham, Lancashire, Lincolnshire, Leicestershire, Kent, Surrey and even the Isle of Man. A squad of players will also be returning from the Rugby Tennis Club, and our leading performance players will need to be at their best to ward off the strong outside challenge.
An improvement for 2011 sees the 21U events replaced by Open Singles and Doubles, Framlingham winners Robert Camplin and Maddison Jones taken on by the likes of Cambridgeshire’s Jack Thorndyke and Alice McNee, together with Norfolk’s James Armstrong. Rohan Abel + Darren Kappala-Ramsamy are our main hopes in the 18U/16U, Ella Monsey hoping to repeat her impressive Fram.form, when she captured both the 16U/14U Singles titles.
Max Darrington continues his tennis “comeback” in the 14U, having given GB 12U Luke Hammond a good match in the Fram.final, and William Cooke-Wharton and Nia Braidford carry the flag in the 12U category. 10U events will be held at Felixstowe on Thursday, Friday and Saturday, with Matchplay and mini tennis on Sunday 14th, Kathy Martin running the mini tennis at David Lloyd, Ipswich.
Talking of mini tennis, the future of Suffolk tennis looks very bright, as a number of top junior players are making great strides at mini tennis level. Under the watchful eye of Chris Daynes and Jeremy Cowley at the Sports Club, Ipswich won their respective Suffolk leagues at 8U, 9U and 10U in the recent National Club League, winning every fixture they played. Following this, all three teams went on to enjoy further success in the East Regional Finals.
8Us: Adam Rudolph, Joshua Stokes, Isobel Eaton, Joel Sheldon, Maddie McLoughlin and Rory Treacy.
9Us: Will Garland, Travis Ireland, Henry Wilson, Harriet Petley, Kylie Bilchev and Edward Johns.
10Us: Noah Cutting, Ross Spinner, Harriet Petley, Jake Davey, Joshua Rymell and Angus Edmund.
Our senior County Men are setting a fine example, and their latest promotion to the dizzy heights of Group 2 was a truly fantastic achievement.
Hunstanton is clearly a happy hunting ground for them, and I will be toasting their success next week as I make my usual annual trek into the county of Norfolk to referee their mammoth family tournament, with over 1000 competitors. A detailed look at their performance will follow next week. Finishing on the senior County theme, the Ladies’ 65 and Over Organiser Vera Penman is appealing for more players at this level. Anyone interested who would like to participate in the 65 and Over monthly sessions at Henley Road, Ipswich should contact Vera on 01284-830390. Juniors are reminded that the Suffolk Closed takes place from August 29th to 2nd September.