PERSHORE Tennis Centre members did the club proud as they amassed six wins from the 29 players who competed in this year’s County Closed competition featuring 32 categories.
Hosted by Manor Park in Malvern, Pershore’s notable wins were Dara Guppy in the boys’ 8U singles event in which the seven-year-old surprised the older opposition by winning all seven of his matches to take the title including a 10-9 win in the final.
The 10U boys’ doubles competition was well represented by Pershore with five of the eight players from the club.
It was Theo Houston who won this event with his partner George Hadley, beating Pershore’s William Billings and Tom Porter in what was a thrilling three-set final.
The 12U boys’ doubles event brought together Alfie Mills and Jack Bulbulia as the number one seeded pair. They cruised to the final, dropping only six games in two matches and went on to take the title 6-3,7-5.
Meanwhile, in the girls’ events, Caoimhe Guppy was determined to pick up some more titles having been a regular winner over the years. She did not disappoint, despite being the second seed in the 14U girls’ singles, emerging 6-2, 6-4 winner against rival Bethany Pye.
Pershore had success in the 18U boys’ singles competition as the talented Max Hingley powered through the quarter-final and semi-final before beating Joe Hart 6-3,7-6(3) in the final.
Hingley was also awarded the prestigious County ‘Junior Boy of the Year’ award, having had a successful 12 months and as a result rising to 144 in the country in the 18U boys’ category.
Pershore’s other winners were the deadly doubles duo Matt Sime and Antony Fordham, who won the 18U boys’ doubles title after coming back from 8-5 down in the final set match tie-break to secure a 10-8 win over Hingley and Hart.
Sime and Fordham have now won 14U, 16U and 18U county doubles titles together.
A special team award was presented to the 10U boys’ County Cup team of which William Billings and Theo Houston were part of this year.
There are a number of runners-up to mention including 10U boys’ doubles William Billings/Tom Porter, 12U boys’ singles Alfie Mills, 12U girls’ doubles player Ruth Teale who had to settle for second when her partner pulled out with an injury just before their final, 14U girls doubles Caoimhe Guppy/Ruth Teale, 14U mixed doubles Caoimhe Guppy and 16U girls’ singles Caoimhe Guppy who lost in the final having won an epic third set match tie-break 18-16 in the semis.
Other notable results for Pershore were Maegan Teale competing in the 8U girls’ event in which she reached the semi-final before losing to eventual winner Grace Hadley.
Pershore had six boys in the 9U singles and Tom Randall performed the best, reaching the quarter-finals. The other Pershore boys were Lucas Webster, Tim Bisson, Ronan Guppy, Dhruv Dubey and George Billings.
In the 9U mixed doubles event, Bisson partnered Randall and Webster was Guppy’s doubles partner. Both pairs won matches in the group, but did not progress any further.
Theo Houston, William Billings, Tom Porter and James Barnett entered the 10U boys’ singles and Billings made it to the semi-final before losing to number one seed George Hadley in a close match.
In the bottom half of the draw, Houston also made it to the semis, but lost to number two seed Felix Shennan.
In the 12U girls’ singles, Ruth Teale narrowly lost her semi-final 6-7(2), 4-6 to the eventual winner and Caoimhe Guppy partnered Georgia Marrett in the 16U girls’ doubles to finish third.
Matt Sime reached the semi-finals of the 18U boys’ singles before he and Antony Fordham reached the semi-finals of the open men’s doubles event, as did Max Hingley with his partner.
For more details of the upcoming events at Pershore TC including free tennis at the Junior Schools Roadshow on Sunday, September 29, visit pershoretennis.co.uk.