Team Ipswich Junior Parks Tennis Tournament

Now in its fifteenth year, the Ipswich Junior Parks Tennis Tournament ran between the 23rd and 27th July coming to a close with the finals at Ensors County Tennis Centre.

The tournament featured both boys and girls singles and doubles competitions with entrants at under 12, under 14 and under 18 level, a total of 54 Participants entered. The tournament started in Christchurch Park on the Monday and the standard of tennis throughout the entire tournament was highly competitive but well natured. The great sportsmanship continued into the final day and was epitomised by 15 year old, Boris Hackett from Colchester, the recipient of the fair play award. The award was kindly donated by The Friends of Christchurch Park and was presented by David Routh, This award has been running for a number of years and is given to the player who was shown to have the best attitude towards their opponents and other competitors throughout their matches and the duration of the tournament, regardless of the result.

A special thank you must go to The Friends Of Christchurch Park for continuing to support this event and for providing an award to honour the entrant who shows the best example of fair play.

The tournament was rounded off in style as it moved location to the Ensors County Tennis Centre for the semi-finals and finals. Every match that was played on Friday continued this theme of fair play, but the focus of all the players was now firmly fixed on victory as they arrived with ambitions of being crowned Champions 2007.

There was a tremendous display high quality tennis from all participants that gripped the supporters, and resulted in the following winners and runners up. Many matches battled on through both sets and ended with tie breaks. One of the closest matches was the Under 12 Boys Singles semi final between Mathew Patience and Michael Leveridge where the final tie break went to Michael 14-12.

12 and under boys singles:

Winner –Jordan Peacock, Runner up – Michael Leveridge

12 and under boys doubles:

Winners –Michael Leveridge/George Sutton, Runners up – Jordan Peacock/Liam Murphy

14 and under boys singles:

Winner – Nick Wake, Runner up – Mathew Tallent

14 and under boys doubles:

Winners – Adam Chappell/Mathew Tallent, Runners up – Nick Wake/Tom Wake

18 and under boys singles:

Winner – Laurence Margerum, Runner up – Chris Browning

18 and under boys doubles:

Winners – Liam Gedge/Mark Fulcher, Runners up – Chris Page/Boris Hackett

18 and under girls singles:

Winner – Beth Dale, Runner Up –Ellie Hullis

Ipswich Sports Development Unit would like to thank all of the competitors for entering and all of their parents and guardians for transporting and supporting them throughout the tournament.

We hope to see as many of this year’s participants as well as some new faces for next year’s tournament, which is scheduled for Monday 28th of July to Friday 1st of August. For more information contact Leisure Support Services at Ipswich Borough Council on 01473 433500.