Honours shared at the Durham Ladies Championships

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Durham University Sports Ground
Saturday/Sunday 6-7 November 2021

The 3rd Durham Ladies Championships were played on the University Courts over the first weekend of November, featuring 14 players from the University, the City Club and the Edinburgh Academy. This is the first of the ranking events this season, to be followed in December by the Ladies’ U23 Championships at St Paul’s, then in January by the Ladies’ National Championships in Manchester

Julie McIntyre reports: It was down to the wire for the City of Durham Ladies competition in 2021, with the organiser coming back from Covid-19, one of the courts used for storage until the day before, and a few others unable to make it — all bets were off!  Thanks go to D & P Trophies also, who made a replacement medal for us and delivered it on Saturday morning!

Thankfully everything came together and the wonderful Edinburgh Academy girls lit up the courts once again after our long Covid break. It was great to have two super-enthusiastic Durham University students also, and with an army of club helpers everything came together for a cracking competition.

Tom Wakelam was in the hot seat for the Singles on Saturday, doing the draw and weaving his magic to sort everyone into age groupings, as well as an overall knockout competition.

There were quite a few close-fought games and some very well-matched opponents. At one point we had the National U14 champion playing the National U16 champion, and there were plenty of first time match-ups, so anything was possible. 

I hope everyone enjoyed the streaming from one of the courts (thanks to Phil Beattie). The game footage will be tidied up and available on our website shortly (https://cityofdurhamfives.uk/about-fives/).

Congratulations to Camille Beattie (City of Durham) on winning the overall competition, plus the under 16 category, to Kirsten Bell (Durham University) for winning the Over-18 section, and to Holly Brown (Edinburgh Academy), who won the the Under 18s. There was great promise shown by the other girls — we look forward to seeing them all develop over time.

As always, everyone played in the spirit of the game, and had a good laugh too. And they were all ready for their dinner in the evening!

Tom also produced the Doubles draw for Sunday. No age-groupings this time, just two pools of round-robin games, then play-offs for first, second and third place.

This time Kirsten Bell & Sophia Breese (Durham University) beat Camille Beattie & Leah Hogarth (City of Durham), with Poppy Atkinson & Imogen Wright (City of Durham) coming third in a play-off against Rosa Ogilvie & Olivia Smart (Edinburgh Academy). Again, there were plenty of close games, with not much in it, sometimes creating a bit of a headache for the organisers!

We finished off with a big free-for-all pile-in at the end, with a few extra players, and everyone went home exhausted.

Many thanks to Tom, Phil, Yasuyo, Tony, Josey, Geoff, Richie and Jo, and the boys who came along to support. We look forward to next year.

Scores

Open Singles Championship

1st round: Olivia Smart (Ed Acad) bt Roseanna McNaught Davis (Ed Acad) 11-9, 11-2; Imogen Wright (City Club) bt Louise Hawkins (Ed Acad) 7-11, 11-4, 12-10; Sophia Breese (University) bt Clemmie Davidson (Ed Acad) 11-2, 11-4; Holly Brown (Ed Acad) bt Poppy Atkinson (City Club) 11-3, 11-2; Chrissie Clark (Ed Acad) bt Cecily Millar (Ed Acad) 11-5, 7-11, 11-8
Quarter-finals: Camille Beattie (City Club) bt Olivia Smart 11-0,11-0; Imogen Wright bt Sophia Breese 11-8, 12-10; Rosa Ogilvie (Ed Acad) bt Holly Brown 11-9, 11-7; Kirsten Bell (University) bt Chrissie Clark 11-1, 11-4
Semi-finals: Beattie bt Wright 11-2, 11-0; Bell bt Ogilvie 11-9, 3-11, 11-1
Final: Beattie bt Bell 11-0, 11-0

Over-18 Singles: Kirsten Bell bt Sophia Breese

U18 Singles: 1st Holly Brown; 2nd Poppy Atkinson; 3rd Louise Hawkins

U16 Singles: 1st Camille Beattie; 2nd Rosa Ogilvie; 3rd Chrissie Clark

Open Doubles Championship

Pool A: 1st Beattie & Leah Hogarth (City Club); 2nd Bell & Breese (University); 3rd Brown & McNaught Davis (Ed Acad); 4th Hawkins & Millar (Ed Acad)
Pool B: 1st Ogilvie & Smart (Ed Acad); 2nd Atkinson & Wright (City Club); 3rd Clark & Davidson (Ed Acad)

Semi-finals: Beattie & Hogarth bt Atkinson & Wright 11-8, 11-8; Bell & Breese bt Ogilvie & Smart 11-5, 11-7
Final: Bell & Breese bt Beattie & Hogarth 11-5, 11-9
3rd/4th Place: Atkinson & Wright bt Ogilvie & Smart 12-11, 11-3
5th Place: Hawkins & Millar

Ready for Singles

The Singles finalists

The Doubles champions

The U16 Singles finalists