The South of Scotland Tennis Championships enjoyed a break in the recent bad weather at the end of the 8 day long tournament to complete all senior events on schedule last Sunday.

After a huge entry once again with an extra 6 players above last year’s 135yr old record, organisers had one eye on the weather forecasts all week. Any break in play would impact heavily on the schedules and cause a backlog difficult to recover from.

With a rainy start to Thursday morning stopping play for 5 hours the unprecedented decision was made to open up the 4 all-weather courts at Nunholm, Dumfries and also the two courts at Moffat academy to bring a total of 12 courts into use in the afternoon and enable the referee’s to end Thursdays play back on schedule. Tournament organisers would like to thank both Nunholm Tennis Club and Moffat Academy for their help in making their facilities available when necessary throughout the week.

The Men’s Open saw a top class final with Alan Macdonlad (Linlithgow ltc) beating Calum Gee (Giffnock Tennis club) in a match that was much closer than the score suggests. Both had fought their way to the final in what was an event full of very highly rated individuals.

The Ladies open saw Emily Lauder (Virgin Active Club Lanarkshire) bt Sophie Dunlop (Strathgryfe LTC) in another close final.

Unfortunately, tournament regular Gary Smith (brother of Davis Cup Captain Leon Smith) was unable to regain the open singles crown he lost last year and was desperate to win back, having won on five previous occasions but was delighted to walk away with the honour of being the mixed doubles champion with partner Marie Berlouis.

Popular with the watching crowd were Moffatonians Ian Hutchison and his cousin Catriona Hutchison who both played brilliantly and were cheered on in a thrilling mixed doubles handicap final only to narrowly lose out to tournament regulars Lewis Hardcastle and Harriet Beattie.

Ian enjoyed another final in the Men’s handicap doubles. This time partnering Nunholm player Dan McKiddie, again coming a close second to the eventual winners from Lochmaben and Lockerbie respectively, Chad Lawson and Raymond Varrie.

Another of Beechgrove Tennis Club’s finest in action was Ella Paul with friend and Lochmaben Tennis club player Rhona Park. Both held their own for much of the Ladies Open Doubles match against the very strong pairing of Aimee Black (Western LTC) and Nikki Howie (Whitecraigs).

Results;

Men’s open singles Alan Macdonlad bt Calum Gee 6-3 6-1

Ladies open singles Emily Lauder bt Sophie Dunlop  6-4 6-4

Men’s open doubles Alan Macdonalrd/AndrewMelrose bt Alan Mclure/Ewan Mcginn 6-3 7-6(3)

Ladies open doubles Aimee Black/Nikki Howie bt Rhona Park/Ella Paul 6-1 6-4

Mixed open doubles Gary Smith/Marie Berlouis bt Calum Gee/Aimee Black 6-3 7-5

Men’s handicap singles Jamie Fleming bt Stuart George 7-5 6-4

Men’s handicap doubles Chad Lawson/Raymond Varrie bt Ian Hutchison/Daniel Mckiddie 6-0 4-6 [6-3]

Mixed handicap doubles Lewis Hardcastle/Harriet Beattie bt Ian Hutchison/Catriona Hutchson 6-5 5-6 [6-3]

U18 Boys Alan Mcclure bt James Shemilt 6-3 6-3

U18 Girls Emily Lauder bt Nicola Tweedy 6-3 6-2

U16 Boys James Shemilt bt Mark Watt 6-3 6-4

U16 Girls Courtney Mccorkell bt Nicola Tweedy 6-2 6-2

U16 Boys doubles James Shemilt/Mark Watt bt Cameron Kerr/Greg Walker 4-1 4-2

U16 Girls doubles Harriet Beattie/Courtney Mccorkell bt Alicia Gates Lucy Wallerstein 5-4(5) 4-2

U14 Boys James Parkin bt Cameron Kerr 7-6(6) 6-7(4) [10-7]

U14 Girls Courtney Mccorkell bt Emily Gates 6-1 6-3

The organising committee would like to thanks all their sponsors, without whom none of this would be possible

Magnox limited (chapelcross site), HEAD uk, Annandale and Eskdale Upper Area Committee, Earl of Annandale and Hartfell, Scottish Cooperative, The Star Hotel, The Stag Hotel, The Buccleuch Arms Hotel, The Balmoral Hotel, Hartfel House and Limetree Restaurant, Claudio’s Restaurant, Moffat House Hotel and Maria’s Fish & Chip shop.