Shipston book a finals night repeat

6:30am Sunday 6th July 2008

THE fourth and final round of pool matches for the Prudden Road Surfacing Junior Tennis Cup saw only one of last year's teams qualify for this year's semi-final stage.

Current holders Shipston are the only survivors and they are joined in the last four by Henleym Studley and Evesham.

The finals will be held at Bidford on Monday, July 16 from 6.30pm.

Pool A final meeting began with Henley and Tanworth-in-Arden sharing top spot with 16 points apiece and all to play for.

Both sides, along with Snitterfield, had 6-0 walkovers against Claverdon who failed to field a side.

Henley began well with Jake Evans and Chris Cardwell enjoying a 6-2 win over Snitterfield. They then clinched their place at the top defeating Tanworth 6-0.

To really dampen their day, Tanworth's Rory Turnbull and Will Elliott went down to Snitterfield's Oliver Albrecht and Jonnie Smith 6-2.

Studley had a two-point lead going into the final Pool B fixtures but still expected a tough night.

It was tougher than expected as bottom side HDA fought hard before going down to Tom Allum and Jake Wooley 6-4.

The Studley pair then went on to the big one against Inkberrow which was tighter than the final 6-3 score reflected.

They finished the night by beating Alcester's Oliver Allemann and Chris Avard 6-0 on a technicality when, although the Alcester pair won 6-3, Avard declared himself as a year too old for the competition!

Inkberrow's Billy Coughlin and George Crotty restored some pride with a 6-1 defeat of HDA pair Hugo Berry and Matthew Parsons.

Shipston were already assured of their place in the semi-finals and started with a four- point lead which could only be beaten if the Shipston boys failed to turn up!

Alas for the other sides they did although Hugh Allen and James Hudson were made to work hard for it against the Stratford A's Eddi Meir and Hamish Watson before claiming a 6-4 victory.

They then defeated Ilmington 6-0 and had a 6-0 walkover over no-shows Chipping Campden.

Stratford were given a tough match by Ilmington's Nicholas Sharratt and Ned Plackett before both sides had 6-0 walkover s against Campden.

Pool D proved to be the tightest finish of them all with Evesham pair Tim Vaux and Robert Noble leading by two points with Stratford B in second spot.

However, when the latter defeated Evesham 6-4 in the opening match, Robert Horne and Isaac Mackenzie began to wonder if the impossible was on the cards.

With two points awarded for a win and one for turning out to play, the Stratford boys needed to see an upset from one of the other two teams.

Unfortunately, Bidford's Ben Green and Thomas Watson couldn't provide it as they went down 6-1 to both Evesham and Stratford B, Pershore, unfortunately, had to pull out giving all the other teams 6-0 walkovers.

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