The culmination of the 2010 South Warwickshire Junior Summer League took place with a full best of three sets final in front of a large crowd containing senior men players, officials and parents at the Annual Pairs Tournament held at Stratford-Upon- Avon Tennis Club.
This 12 years and under competition began last March with 16 teams divided into four Pools, with matches each consisting of four local club’s who played each other once per month taking turns to host the venue between March and June. The eventual winners of each Pool then played each other in a Semi-Finals Pool at Bidford-on-Avon in July. The top two teams who qualified were Shipston-on-Stour, who appeared in their sixth final winning five, and Studley who went down in their only other appearance in 2008 to Henley. That final was the only one of the seven finals to date when Shipston did not appear.
If the semi-finals were anything to go by this was expected to be a close affair and so it proved. Elliott Peat & Josh Lawrence began well for Studley taking the opening game and the third to lead 2-1. However the Shipston pair James England & Nick Sharratt turned up the pace and despite numerous deuces in every game they ran out 6-2 winners of the first set which did not reflect the closeness of the play.
The second set followed the first with almost every game taken to deuce before being decided. The difference was that Studley’s Peat & Lawrence having been 3-1 up and then 3-5 down came back to take the set to tie-break at 6-6. In a tight contest Studley edged out Shipston 9-7 in the tie-break to take the second set and level the match at 1 set apiece.
The Final set was a Championship Tie-Break of first pair to reach 10 points by two clear points. .Shipston’s England &Sharratt finally made the mini break at 2-2 and pulled away to finally beat Studley 10-5 and take their fifth junior title.
Shipston’s James England and Nick Sharratt were presented with the cup by the Secretary of the Warwickshire Lawn Tennis Association and League Chairman, Tony Eskew. The winners also won a cheque for £50, donated by the League to further develop their Junior Section. Studley’s Elliott Peat and Josh Lawrence were also presented with individual runners-up awards by Tony Eskew, in recognition of their achievement at reaching the final.