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60th Annual Pembrokeshire County Tennis Tournament
Luke and Shirley lead Diamond Celebration for Pembrokeshire Tennis
Luke Dixon and Sharon Irish led the way in the finals of the Pembrokeshire Tennis Tournament as they became singles champions respectively in the Men’s and Ladies’ Singles in what is the 60th year of the competition.
Luke also completed the coveted treble with success in the Men’s and Mixed Doubles and a positive feature of the tournament was the fact that there were so many junior players involved this year.
Sponsored by Westhaven Construction and Pembrokeshire Motor Services, the tournament was held over the fortnight Monday 13 July to finals’ day on the 25 July. 54 players took part in singles and doubles events and play took place whenever the weather allowed.
Luke stars in the men’s singles
It was a pleasing fact that six juniors took part in the men’s singles and gave the seniors a run for their money. In the quarter-finals Daniel Cole, aged 13, narrowly lost to Marc Thompson by 13-11 in the final set tie-break, whilst the other outstanding junior taking part was Matthew Brady, aged 14, who lost a good match to number three seed Thomas Richards. Matthew also reached the semi-finals of the men’s doubles with his partner Brian Hearne, losing 6-1, 6-3 to number 1 seeds, Luke Dixon and Marc Thompson. He also reached the quarter-finals of the mixed doubles with his partner Julia Brady, narrowly losing to the number two seeds Marc Thompson and Sandra Rowlands by 12-10 in the final set tie-break. Matthew’s performances earned him the award for the Best Junior Performance throughout the tournament.
Luke Dixon, number one seed, stormed through to the final in the men’s singles, losing only eight games on the way before he met Andrew Miller, the number 2 seed, in the final. Luke is a very powerful and talented player and was too strong for Andrew to cope with so that although the first few games were extremely competitive and hard fought, Luke was in no mood to give anything away. Andrew kept up the pressure right to the end, but Luke ran out a winner 6-0, 6-0.
Hard-fought ladies’ battle
The ladies’ singles was played out over two hours of highly competitive tennis before Sharon Irish, the number two seed, overturned last year’s result by beating the number one seed, Shirley James 7-6, 6-4. It was a match of long rallies and court manoeuvring and was very entertaining to watch.
Entertaining doubles
In the men’s doubles, Luke Dixon paired up with Marc Thompson as number one seeds and retained their title by overcoming Steve Jarvis and David Gillam 6-0, 6-3. In the ladies’ doubles the new pairing of Sharon Irish and Sandra Rowlands beat Sarah Keogh and Amy Waters 6-0, 6-3. The mixed doubles title was retained by Luke Dixon and Sarah Keogh, who beat Marc Thompson and Sandra Rowlands 6-2, 6-0. The men’s plate was closely fought out between Jack Davies and Liam Williams, the former winning in the third set tie-break.
Celebrations continued
Tennis on finals’ day was entertaining and competitive and was watched by about 70 family, friends and tennis enthusiasts, who celebrated the 60th anniversary with a knife and fork buffet in the clubhouse afterwards. The first tournament on the Parade took place in 1936 and although there have been a few gap years, it has been going ever since and PembrokeshireSport.co.uk says long may it continue.
60th Annual Pembrokeshire County Tennis Tournament : photo roll of honour |
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Ladies' doubles runner-up Amy Waters |
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Ladies' Doubles runner-up Sarah Keogh
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Ladies' Doubles winner Sandra Rowlands |
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Ladies' Singles champion Sharon Irish |
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Ladies' Singles Finalists - Shirley James & Sharon Irish |
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Ladies' Singles runner-up Shirley James |
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Men's Doubles finalists Luke Dixon, Marc Thompson, Steve Jarvis & Dave
Gillam |
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Men's Doubles runner-up Dave Gillam |
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Men's Doubles runner-up Steve Jarvis |
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Men's Doubles winner Marc Thompson |
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Men's Plate runner-up Liam Williams |
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Men's Singles Champion - Luke Dixon |
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Men's Singles runner-up Andrew Miller |
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Men's Plate winner Jack Davies |
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Plate Finalists Liam Williams & Jack Davies |
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| Sarah Keogh, Amy Waters, Sandra Rowlands and Sharon Irish - Ladies'Doubles finalists | |
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