Warwickshire County Closed Finals Day Blog & Wrap

Finals day was upon us and the sky had finally ran out of rain to throw down onto the outdoor tennis courts at Billesley Indoor Tennis Centre.  A testament to the competition organizing teams skills was that all matches were due to finish on time today and after an awful week weather wise, the sun even made several appearances throughout the day (better late than never I suppose)!

We managed to catch up with Adam Wharf from the Edgbaston Priory Club High Performance Centre in the morning and quizzed him on issues currently faced by High Performance Centres and the Warwickshire County Closed in general.  I feel I should mention that Warwickshire LTA Talent Performance Coordinator Rob Briggs point blank refused to go on camera at this point to ask his questions, leaving me and Rory to decipher his terrible handwritten notes!  You can see the interview with Adam below.

The beautiful weather lead to a full day of uninterrupted tennis (which was a welcome relief) and by the time 5pm rolled around pretty much all but two of the events had concluded and we all knew who had won what.  The trophies had been expertly cleaned by County Administrator Sarah Messenger and, ahem, myself and glistened quite nicely in the sun ready to be handed out. 

I think it should also be noted that this year there were two new Sportsmanship awards that were handed to the most sporting boy and girl from the week long event (the winners were decided by the refereeing team).  This was no easy task as the levels of Sportsmanship throughout the tournament had been extremely high, thanks in no small part I’m sure to the Warwickshire SMILE Campaign.  However in the end the boy’s winner was Matthew Tulley of Moseley Tennis Club and the girl’s winner was Melissa Brookes of Edgbaston Archery LTS.  For a break down of all the Warwickshire County Closed 2010 Event Winners please read on:

Warwickshire County Closed Winners 2010:

8 & Under Boys Singles: Finlay Smith
8 & Under Girls Singles: Elizabeth Shepherd
9 & Under Boys Singles: Ben Brewster
9 & Under Girls Singles: Savannah Yardley
10 & Under Boys Singles: Jake Hersey
10 & Under Girls Singles: Elizabeth Massie
12 & Under Boys Singles: Luke Hammond
12 & Under Girls Singles: Kate Malazonia
14 & Under Boys Doubles: Luke Hammond & Oliver Kitching
14 & Under Boys Singles: Mason Recci
14 & under Girls Doubles: Isabelle Taylor & Akira Madams
14 & Under Girls Singles: Emily Smith
16 & Under Boys Singles: Nicholas Mercer
16 & Under Girls Singles: Emily Smith
18 & Under Boys Doubles: Andrew Cooper & Sam Jenkins
18 & Under Boys Singles: John Keighley
18 & Under Girls Doubles: Alana Casey & Josie Williamson
18 & Under Girls Singles: Holly Reid
21 & Under Men’s Singles: Cameron Malik
Men’s Singles:  Sundeep Ubhi

As you can see from the number of events that took place during the week the event is a massive responsibility, congratulations should go to the refereeing team and the organisational/admin team (WLTA County Office) for another well-organised event.  Once WLTA Press & Sponsorship Officer Bob Malden (along with Eamonn Bourke from the Warwickshire Junior Tennis Foundation) had handed all the awards to the winners and runners up it was time to wrap up the event for 2010.  There was just enough time for referee Tariq Mahmood to leave us with his final thoughts on the 2010 event and for everyone to look forward to the Warwickshire County Closed 2011, until then its goodbye from my blog and I’m sure I’ll be seeing you again come August next year!