December: Review of 2007
Jo Gray writes... This year has been another very successful year for the junior section.  I would like to thank all the parents who have helped to organise teams, provided transport and supported the children this year.  I would also like to thank Neil Walker and Olly Kazemi for the high standard of coaching that has been provided for all our junior members and Neil for organising all the junior competitions.  A junior newsletter has been introduced so that all our junior members have information about successes and important dates.

Cranston Park has again received funding for its Junior Performance programme and many of our most talented juniors continued to receive extra training as a result.

Coaching - at the beginning of 2007 Neil Walker was awarded the Performance Coach of the Year by Essex LTS.  This is the top coaching award presented by the county and recognised Neil’s dedication during the ten years he has been Head Coach at our club. 

We were pleased to welcome Olly Kazemi to the full time coaching position left vacant last year.

National Club League - our Girl’s under 14 team which comprised of Adele Sammons, Eva Dench, Emily Defroand, Sian Green and Jess Walker achieved unprecedented success during 2007.  After becoming County champions in their age group they continued into the regional competition and eventually lost in the last eight nationally to a team from Southampton.  This was a fantastic achievement and I would like to congratulate them on behalf of Cranston Park for their success this year.  Well done.

Chelmsford Junior League - throughout the summer we have again had both boys and girls teams representing our club in all age groups.  The boys and girls U18 teams won their leagues.  The girls U12, U14 and U16 teams were all runners up in theirs.   In the boys league the U12, U14 and U16 teams will play in the finals to be held later in November as will our youngest team the U10s.

Mini Tennis - again this year we had both red and orange teams representing our club in the county competition.  Well done to the Mini Orange Team who was runner up in the Essex Mini Tennis Finals.  The team was Olivia Sofroniou, Jasmine Walker, Ben Davis and Christopher Whitbread.

Jasmine Walker reached the finals of both the summer and winter Essex Mini Tennis Green competitions. She finished runner up in both.

Other News - five of our juniors have represented the county during 2007.  Adele Sammons and Eva Dench played in the Girls U14 Inter County Cup.  George Gray played in the Boys U10 Inter County Cup and the Lionel Cox U10 team.  Nick Wade and Olivia Sofroniou played for the Boys and Girls U9 Lionel Cox teams.  Well done.

This year many of our players have taken part in tournaments throughout the county and around the country with a great deal of success.  Congratulations to Adele Sammons and Emily Defroand for winning the Essex County Closed U14 Girls Doubles title at Thorpe Bay and to George Gray for being runner-up in the Boys U10s at the same tournament.  We have also had many other finalists during the year.  Full details of all of these will be in the next Junior Newsletter displayed on our notice boards.  I would like to personally congratulate all our players for their achievements during 2007.

28/10/2007: Andy Murray won his third ATP title with a 6-2 6-3 win over Fernando Verdasco in the St Petersburg Open. The win lifted him to 11th in the ATP Race and increased his chances of making the end-of-season Masters Cup in Shanghai. Murray is now just three points behind Tommy Haas who occupies the eighth and final qualifying spot with only one ranking event left to play - the Masters Series in Paris.

 

21/10/2007: David Nalbandian won the first Masters Series title of his career with a 1-6 6-3 6-3 win over world number one Roger Federer in the Madrid Masters. The unseeded Argentine beat the world's top three on his way to the final beating Rafael Nadal and Novak Djokovic. It was Federer's first loss on indoor hard courts since the Argentine rallied to beat him at the Masters Cup in Shanghai just under two years ago. It was Federer's first defeat since he lost to Djokovic in the final of the Montreal Masters in August and only his seventh loss of the year.

October 13 2007: Chelmsford Junior Individual Tournament - Plate Finals
Congratulations to Olivia Sofroniou who beat Charlotte Caddies convincingly 6-1 6-1 in the Girls U10 Plate Final held at Grove LTC in Chelmsford

 

September 2007

September 15 2007: Turbo Tennis
CPLTC Junior, Bradley McDermott, called into action at the inaugural Turbo Tennis at the O2 Arena in London

Turbo Tennis is a shortened form of tennis in which players play in a fast knockout tournament consisting of five matches of 30 minutes each taking place over the course of an afternoon. The concept was launched in London by former Wimbledon champion Pat Cash and American James Blake.

Players competing in the inaugural tournament: Andy Murray (GBR); Greg Rusedski (GBR), replacing Tim Henman (as his wife had their 3rd child Friday evening); Pat Cash (AUS); James Blake (USA); Goran Ivanisevic (CRO); and Jamie Murray (GBR).

Alan McDermott dropped me an email about the event that I thought I'd share with you (with Alan's permission of course).

"I took my son Bradley to see Turbo tennis on Saturday 15th at the 02 centre.  Greg Rusedski came on court and announced to the 12,000 crowd that he needed a coach. He picked Bradley, who was taken on to court then sat on the chairs where the players sit, for the whole of Greg's match. Greg called Bradley on to court half way through for some advice. It ended up that Greg & Bradley got interviewed by Jodie Kidd which was shown on Channel 4 on Saturday afternoon.  They gave Bradley a smashing Dunlop shirt and a pen and he got it signed by all the players.  He said afterwards "Dad this was the second best day of my life" I said what's the first? - he said "being born"!  Bradley is 7 and is currently coached by Olly."

Unlike regular tennis, Turbo Tennis games are set to a 30 minute time limit with a klaxon on the fifteenth minute to signify a change of ends. If games are level after 30 minutes the winner is decided by a sudden death point. Other main differences include a 15 second maximum time limit for serves which, if exceeded, result in a player automatically losing the point - no lets.

September 9 2007: National Junior Club League GU14
The South East 1 Final - Match Report Cranston Park vs  Riverside Esporta Chiswick
Gill Defroand writes...The Club’s talented Under 14 Girls team have reached the quarter finals of the LTA’s British National Junior Club League.  As Essex Champions they have fought through three rounds at regional level and now, as South East 1 Champions, they meet Southampton ITI in the last eight.

Last weekend the girls fought through a nerve-racking match against Middlesex champions, Riverside Esporta of Chiswick in the final of the South East 1 Region.  Eva Dench, who only recently returned from a three month lay off due to injury, had a really tough match losing 6/2, 6/0 against national top 15 player Christina Braitchouk. Soon after though, Emily Defroand and Sian Green won the first round doubles 6/3, 6/3 and with the overall match score even, the team nervously supported Adele Sammons in her singles match against Sophie Morrell.  Adele superbly fought back from one set down to win a thrilling match 3/6, 6/4, 10/4 on a championship tie break and make the overall score 2-1 to Cranston Park.

In the second round  Sian produced some fantastic tennis to quickly see off Amanda Stenbaek 6/1, 6/1 while it was Emily who clinched the victory as she held her nerve to convincingly brush aside Betty Wang 6/1, 7/5.

Eva and Adele had a close encounter with Christina and Sophie in the final doubles of the day but the 4/6, 6/7 loss did not prevent the team from gaining their fantastic victory.

All support for the quarter final against Southampton ITI will be welcome with play getting underway at Cranston Park at 1.00pm Sunday 23 September.  The winners travel to Bath University in October for the national finals.

World number one Roger Federer won a fourth consecutive US Open title with a 7-6 (7-4) 7-6 (7-2) 6-4 victory over Novak Djokovic. He becomes the first man ever to win Wimbledon and the US Open for four years in a row, and the first to win four straight US titles since Bill Tilden in 1923.

September 8 2007: The Chelmsford Junior Tennis Association Individual Tournament Finals (Pope & Smith)
Cranston Park juniors make it to the finals held at Great Baddow LTC
Report provided by the Chelmsford Junior Tennis Association, Eric von Wielligh writes...
The Pope & Smith Postal Tournament finals day was held at Gt Baddow LTC in perfect weather conditions.  Alison Clarke won the Girls U15 Singles in a close, hard fought match and was runner up in the Girls U18 Singles. She then teamed up with Georgie da Costa to win the Girls U18 Doubles too. Billericay's Prudence Jones and Corné on Wielligh won the U13 singles titles for Girls and Boys. Prudence was always too strong for Shannon Newnes, who defeated higher seeded players in the previous rounds, winning 6-1 6-1. Corné came back from being 2-4 behind in the 1st set, to take 10 of the last 12 games against Ben Stevenson.

The longest match of the day also draw the biggest crowd of spectators. Nicola Calverley and Charlotte McGuiness had 4 match points, but eventually lost to Adele Sammons and Emily Defroand by 3-6 6-0 7-6 (7) in the Girls U14 Doubles. Cranston Park players won all the U14 doubles titles, with Emily also winning the mixed doubles with Billy Elliott and Billy winning the boys doubles with James Davis.

The shortest match of the day was Matt Pearce's classy performance in the Boys U18 Singles, where he defeated Ben Croston 6-1 6-0. In the Boys U18 Doubles though, Ben teamed up with Matthew Heal-Cohen to beat David Wright and Marcus Eatherton in a hard fought match.  The Boys U15 final was a hard hitting match, with Jonathan Disley showing more control than Leon Smart, winning 6-2 6-2.

The U10 singles events both went to Redbridge players. Brooke Newnes beat Erica Izatt in the girls final, whilst Oliver Power and George Gray battled it out in the boys final. Oliver won 6-3 6-3.

Boys Under 10:
O Power (Redbridge) bt G Gray (Cranston Park) 6-3 6-3
Girls Under 10:
B Newnes (Redbridge) bt E Izatt (Havering) 6-0 6-1
Boys Under 13:
C von Wielligh (Billericay) bt B Stevenson (Harlow) 6-4 6-2
Girls Under 13:
P Jones (Billericay) bt S Newnes (Redbridge) 6-1 6-1
Boys Under 15:
J Disley (Bishops Stortford) bt L Smart (Billericay) 6-2 6-2
Girls Under 15:
A Clarke (Grove) bt A Sammons (Cranston Park) 7-5 7-6(4)
Boys Under 18:
M Pearce (Westcliff Hard) v B Croston (West End) 6-1 6-0
Girls Under 18:
A Voyez (Grove/Danbury) v A Clarke (Grove) 6-4 6-2
Boys Doubles Under 14:
B Elliott & J Davis (Cranston Park) bt C Lambert-Hope (Westcliff Hard) & M Grover (David Lloyd) 6-2 6-3
Girls Doubles Under 14:
A Sammons & E Defroand (Cranston Park) bt N Calverley & C McGuiness (Billericay) 3-6 6-0 7-6(7)
Boys Doubles Under 18:
B Croston & M Heal-Cohen (West End) bt M Eatherton (Billericay) & D Wright (Cranbrook Castle) 7-6(3) 6-4
Girls Doubles Under 18:
A Clarke (Grove) & G da Costa (Clearview/Billericay) bt J Waugh & D Leggatt (Billericay) 6-1 7-6(5)
Mixed Doubles Under 14:
E Defroand & B Elliott (Cranston Park) bt H Brown (Harlow) & R Collins (Great Baddow) 6-2 6-3
Mixed Doubles Under 18:
L Seleska & R Legg (Braintree) bt H Sims & R Brown (Hockley) 6-1 6-2

August 2007

August 27 to September 1 2007: The Essex County Junior Closed Lawn Tennis Championship
Cranston Park juniors take part in this annual event held at Thorpe Bay LTC

Yet again the weather behaved itself for last tournament of the summer holidays.  The biggest entry for some time was superbly managed by Ian and Lesley Pitt and their team of referees and officials.  The food was excellent and the bacon rolls were up to their normal high standard.  The tournament is the "must be seen at" event of the year for Juniors and sees players converge on Thorpe Bay to contest singles and doubles competition in all age groups.  Yet again our juniors gave an excellent account of themselves both in behaviour and endeavour.  Sadly, we did witness some appalling behaviour from one player (not a CPLTC player) who should know better which certainly tainted the tournament for us - and no, I'm not going to say who it was. I'll update the results as I get them but here's some to be getting on with - Cranston Park Juniors in finals: BU10 Singles Final Oliver Power bt George Gray 4-0 4-0 U14 Mixed Doubles Final Adele Sammons & James Davis bt Marcus Eatherton & Prudence Jones 6-2 7-5 GU14 Doubles Final Adele Sammons & Emily Defroand bt Carys Gilbert & Prudence Jones 6-3 6-2 BU18 Singles Plate Final Richard Tayler bt Ryan Mcdonnell 1-6 6-3 1-0(7)

This was it Henman's l last Grand Slam tournament, the US Open.  Having had a very poor year so far 32-year-old Henman gave us a "C'mon Tim" performance against big hitting Russian Dmitry Tursunov, who had beaten him in five of their previous six meetings.   Not this time though with a great win for Tim in 4 sets. In the end though his last game was against Jo-Wilfried Tsonga in the next round. "It's a reflection of why I'm retiring. Tsonga is a classic modern day player. The way he serves, the way he hits his forehand, his athleticism. It's phenomenal these days. I think that's where it's become harder and harder for me to compete." Farewell Tim, hello Andy!

August 20 to August 25 2007: The Avenue LTC Junior Open Tennis Tournament
Cranston Park juniors sweep the Avenue clean (of trophies)

The Avenue is a small friendly club situated in Loughton with four artificial grass courts and a lovely recently furbished club house.  A great atmosphere all week and a very well run tournament.  I didn't make it to see any of the matches until finals day on the Saturday so didn't realise so many of our juniors were taking part and was surprised by the number of Cranston Park "faces" streaming in through the club gate during the morning. As you can see by the pictures and the results below our juniors yet again did the club and themselves proud.  Not only picking up many trophies but more importantly Lakeside vouchers for winners and runners-up - I can see now why this is a popular tournament; didn't know we had so many shopaholics at the club! Well done to all those that took part. BU10 Singles Final Joel Cannell bt George Gray BU16 Singles Final Jordan Jones bt Sam Tall BU14 Singles Final James Davis bt Joseph Baum GU14 Singles Final Adele Sammons bt Sian Green BU14 Doubles Final James Davis & Billy Elliot bt