On another glorious sunny day in Dumfries the D&G Junior championship took centre stage as 35 kids competed for the D&G trophies.
The first event of the day was the mixed 8s under. There were 8 kids competing for this trophy with some great tennis from all 8 players. After the group stages Dumfries duo Sophia and Mohammed played out the Consolation final with Mohammed taking the final with some good play. In the main draw the top four seeds made the semis. The first semi saw Oliver McKnight (Beechgrove) edging past Logan McCluskey (Dumfries) 10-6, in the second semi Harry Brown (Beechgrove) won the tightest of matches again Cameron Hunter (Dumfries) 11-9. Logan secured third place by beating Cameron 10-3. In the final Oliver and Harry produced a classic as Oliver claimed the title 10-6.
In the 10s and under events we had 4 girls and 9 boys all looking to topple Rose and Fergus who triumphed last year. In a round robin girls event Rose Brown (Beechgrove) managed to win all 3 of her matches to secure the title without dropping a game. Keeley Scott (Beechgrove) secured 2nd place with 2 wins, Erin McCluskey and Eve Crombie completed the line-up. In the boys event we had 2 round robin groups with Dumfries duo Fergus Reynolds-Lewis and Jacob Holden making the semi finals and they were joined by Moffat pair Daniel Palmer and Ben Rogerson. Both semis went the way of the seeding’s with Daniel beating Ben 4-0 and Fergus beating Jacob by the same score. Ben edged Jacob to take third place which left Fergus and Daniel to play out the final. Both boys have played several finals over the years and another great match was anticipated. Fergus started the strongest and after several great rallies Fergus took a 2-0 lead before Daniel took the third game with 2 great angled forehand drives. Fergus then broke Daniels serve to lead 3-1 and served for the match. However Daniel had other ideas and broke Fergus to love and served 2-3 down. Fergus kept his cool as Daniels hit a few serves out before Fergus secured the game and the title. The watching crowd acknowledged a great final as both players came off court absolutely shattered from the play and the heat. Well done to both Rose and Fergus in securing back to back titles.
In the 12s events we had 3 boys and 5 girls competing for the titles. In the boys event Ben Johnstone started with a 4-2, 4-2 victory over Brandon Smith as both Moffat boys struggled with the heat. Ben then took on Fergus Reynolds-Lewis who was trying his hand playing in the 12s event. Both players played some great tennis but Ben proved to strong and played a great tactical game to beat his younger opponent 4-1, 4-2. This was enough to give Ben the titles as Brandon completed the event with a comfortable 4-0, 4-0 victory over Fergus to take the runners-up spot.
In the girls event Catie Palmer (Beechgrove) was looking to regain her title which she won last year and she dually delivered as she played some great controlled tennis to win all 4 of her matches as she only dropped 2 games in doing so. The chasing pack was a lot tighter as the next 3 girls all completed 2 wins each with Heather Keal (Beechgrove) just edging second place by virtue of winning 2 more games than Grace Johnson (Beechgrove) in Third with Amy McMillin (Beechgrove) and Isla Grieve (Annan) making up the places.
In the boys 14s event the early match saw David Johnson (Beechgrove) beat Finlay Reynolds-Lewis (Dumfries) 6-3, 6-0. In the semi final Cameron Cowan edged a closer match than the score suggests 6-1, 6-2 again Ewan McMillin (Beechgrove). This set up a final against David as he completed a 6-3, 6-2 victory against Cameron Welsh.
Again the score didn’t reflect the match as Cameron Cowan won the title with a 6-2, 6-0 victory over David. In the final competition of the day the boys 16s and under event saw Cameron Cowan bt defending Cameron Welsh 6-2, 6-0 and not to be outdone Logan Cowan set up a match against his younger brother with a 6-3, 6-0 victory over Ewan McMillin. This left the two brother to play out the final match of the 2017 D&G Junior championship. Experience and maturity proved invaluable as Logan completed a victory as he beat his younger brother 6-2, 7-6 to lift the title.
Dumfries & Galloway Tennis 