Busy competition time for Tennis Club
ROGER Henry won the recent Ballymena Lawn Tennis Club senior men's singles tournament, held in the People's Park.
The event was held in a round round format with four players - Henry, Gareth Shaw, Mike Morargen and Allen McKenzie – eventually progressing.
The first match saw Gareth Shaw take on hot favourite Roger Henry. Roger is on fine form at the moment after competing in numerous tournaments this season in Ulster and having experienced some fine wins in doubles tournaments in the province.
Shaw, a relative new comer to the sport, has enjoyed success in the summer leagues this year with the club but was always going to struggle against the strong baseline ability of Henry.
Shaw started well holding serve and missed the opportunity of breaking Henrys serve with three break points, but Roger hung on to square the game.
This then spurred Henry on to break Shaw's serve in his next two service games to come through and win 6-1.
Next game saw Mike Morargen play McKenzie, a former captain of Corstorphine Tennis club in his native Edinburgh but has recently joined the Ballymena club.
Both players started well and held serve until in the fifth game Morargen broke McKenzie's serve to go 3-2 up. This proved the turning point in the game as Morargen powered on to win 6-2.
Shaw beat McKenzie to claim third spot before a thrilling final between Henry and Morargen.
Henry's powerful serve dominated proceedings and Morargens volley game was proving effective. Both players held serve up to 3-3 until Henry's excellent returns soon took effect and he broke to go 4-3 up. From that point there was no looking back and Henry pushed on to win the title 6-3.
The club would like to take the opportunity to welcome any new players of all abilities and ages to its ranks. Contact Fergus Barklie though the club's website www.ballymenatennis.co.uk for more information.
DOUBLES
The Mens and Ladies Doubles Champiopnships ran all day with some of the best competitive matches ever played on The Peoples Park tennis courts.
With the size of the entry there were a total of 34 matches to be completed in one day which in itself a very tight schedule requiring efficient organising on the three courts available to the club.
Fergus Barklie Club Chairman and competition organiser invited some of the clubs young up and coming players to take part and playing outstanding well against the more experienced senior members giving them plenty of scares throughout their matches.
This was the most exciting men's doubles event ever at the club with matches being played to a very high standard throughout the day.
Committee members have been amazed at the improvement in the standard of play from all those players who have been competing in league matches and Ulster competitions throughout the past two years. This is a great step forward for the club.
The ladies’ doubles was played with great enthusiasm and won by Karen Cherry and Lorraine Donnelly with the runners up being Claire Hamilton and Mary Goodwin, one of the most competitive players in the club.
The men’s doubles was the most competitive scene ever with unexpected defeats of doubles partnerships happening throughout the day.
However in the background a partnership was winning matches against the younger players and then came up against the highest standard pairings in the competition with confidence and experience to be put to the test.
Roger Henry and Fergus Barklie the only veteran player in the tournament took on the very experienced David Hamilton and Mike Maraneu. It was a shaky start but they fought back stronly and surprisingly won 6/3.
Then they met another very good pairing Michael Svcott and Jeremy Whann witha similar match finishing in front 6/4 so out of 7 matches to play were through to their final challenge without dropping a match.
They were up against the excellent pairing of Derek Calderwood and Colin Smith who had dropped two matches but still in the running in the tournament if they could defeat Fergus and Roger.
This they did by 6/2 and when they rushed over to the score board were shattered to find that Fergus and Roger had won 38 games out of a total possible of 42 and they had only 37!
BOYS’ SINGLES
Despite fickle weather, the Junior Boys Singles Tournament was held on October 3 at the Peoples Park, where the younger generation of club players maintained a high standard of tennis, with Darren Tweed coming out the winner in a closely fought competition.
Strong gusts of wind combined with bright sunshine made holding serve very difficult, so consistency was a priority as the 6 contenders vied for success in the ‘round robin’ competition.
Darren Tweed used aggressive tactics to win 4 of his 5 matches with a total of 17 games.
Runner up Ian Wilson took the same number of games but came just short as Darren Tweed had beaten him in their match, despite his characteristic determination.
Nathan Appleton and Barry Clarke ended in a similar situation, each with 15 games and winning 3 of 5 their matches. However Appleton narrowly beat Clarke in an energetic match dominated by baseline rallies, and so took third place.
Of the final two players, Ian McClean used his greater experience to edge ahead of Samuel Wilson, the youngest player in the tournament who remained positive throughout.
Ballymena Lawn Tennis Club will be running special junior doubles tournaments – boys and mixed - during the Halloween school holidays so make sure you you’re your partner lined up and watch out for entry forms.
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Weather for Lurgan
Sunday 12 February 2012
Today
Cloudy
Temperature: 4 C to 8 C
Wind Speed: 7 mph
Wind direction: West
Tomorrow
Sunny spells
Temperature: 5 C to 9 C
Wind Speed: 17 mph
Wind direction: North west
