THE SECOND (April) round of Wildmoor Spa Junior Tennis Cup pool matches have been completed and the same teams still top their pools as in March.
Leading the way are Henley-in-Arden A in Pool A, Evesham in Pool B, Stratford in Pool C and HDA A of Redditch in Pool D.
In Pool A, hosted in Redditch by HDA B, the Henley duo of Alex Evans and Louis Walsh opened by beating Alcester 6-1, then sister side Henley B 6-1 and finally hosts HDA B Redditch 6-4, although the latter gave them a close match.
Henley B pair Alex Didlick and James Price just managed to reverse their result from March against the hosts in another close match, only defeating HDA B 7-5.
The Redditch side finally gained a deserved victory when their boys Joe Hollier and Owen Perry just overcame Alcester’s Adam Haerle and Luke Clements 7-6 (7-2) in a tie-break.
Pool B played at Chipping Campden saw Evesham again dictate the pace as their players Ben Shepherd and Emmanuel Winston beat hosts Campden B 6-0, Campden A 6-0 and finally Pershore 6-4 in a closer match.
Pershore easily claimed second place as their duo Giles Lowbridge and Oliver Marlow proved too strong for the Campden outfits. They beat Campden A and Campden B by the same 6-0 scoreline.
The home pairs for Chipping Campden A – Archie Griffiths and Will Smith – and for Campden B – Finn Watkins and Harry Jeavons – enjoyed a close contest before Campden A emerged 6-4 winners.
Ilmington hosted Pool C. With Bidford unable to field a pair and allowing walkovers for the remaining three teams, it was agreed to increase the games in each match to ten points by two clear points or a tie-break.
Littletons’ players Callum Bennett and Liam Clear made short work of beating hosts Ilmington 10-1 and they reversed last month’s result against Stratford when, in the best match of the week, they took the result 11-10 (7-5) after a tie-break.
Stratford’s William Noyce and Joseph Pinnock were comfortable victors over Ilmington pair Breyton Armstrong and Charlie Dews 10-1.
After this round Stratford and Littetons are equal top with 11 points each, but Stratford’s games are 49-20 to Littletons’ 48-20, leaving only one game separating the sides in the closest of all the pools.
Finally Pool D was played at HDA Tennis Club in Redditch and saw HDA A again cruise to victory in all three of their matches as Harvey Ravenscroft and Scott Mortimer overcome first HDA C 6-3 and then HDA D 6-1.
Since HDA were unable to field an E team this month the other three sides had 6-0 walkovers. In the only other match Paulina Jurkowska and Latesha Grant for HDA C beat HDA D pair Kiyyah Grant and Joe Hembrey 6-0.