Dorning pushed all the way to retain senior title

Defending senior champion Lee Dorning was made to fight all the way, having a tough battle against Lee Holtom of Birmingham before squeezing out Free Church colleague Sam Weaving in five sets in the final.

Church’s Milan Sajiv was in inspired form in the junior competition, getting the better of Rugby’s highly thought of Sam Cafearo and club-mate Livvy Fletcher on his way to the final.

However, Colebridge’s Hawley Ellicott proved a step too far in the showpiece.

In the under-15s, Free Church duo Nikit Sajiv and Josh Yarrow contested one semi-final and Hugh Idle of Phoenix and Jake Crawshaw (Colebridge) the other. Sajiv won the final, beating Crawshaw to five, seven and nine.

The under-13s featured an all-Free Church semi-final, with Eduardo Bolanos taking on Nicholas Ho and an all-Colebridge encounter, with Nathaniel Saunders going up against fellow England-ranked player Sophie Rinnhofer.

Bolanos came through to meet Saunders who he beat 11-8 in the fifth to record one of his best wins to date.

The semi-final of the afternoon Grade A event was an all-Free Church affair with Timmy Cooper overcoming Sam Wiggins and Sam Weaving accounting for Dave Ramsey before Cooper beat Weaving to lift the trophy.

Milan Sajiv continued his impressive form in the Grade B when overcoming the experienced Russell Duncan of Barnt Green in the final.

The Grade C event saw Crawshaw face Idle in the last four and Josh Yarrow of Free Church meet clubmate Eve Briscoe in the second semi-final.

In the final, Crawshaw saw off Yarrow in five.

In the improvers’, Alex Costa of Lillington Free Church beat Alex Bowe of Rugby to reach the final where he overcame clubmate Eduardo Bolanos who had progressed after beating Tom Yarrow.

Finally, in the beginners’, Chris Hearn (Free Church) overcame Connor Invernizzi of Rugby in the semi to face Erin Darwen (Free Church) who beat Ojas Shanbag of Blaenavon in her semi-final. Hearn triumphed in the final.

Consolation events: Seniors: 1, Roald Myers (Free Church); 2, Chris Blowey (Free Church). Juniors: 1, Callum Ball (Rugby); 2, Emma Kilpatrick (Free Church). Under-15: 1, Alex Bowe (Rugby); 2, Alex Costa (Free Church). Under-13: 1, Josh Tyagi (Rugby); 2, Owain Jones (Free Church). Grade A: 1, Sam Cafearo (Rugby); 2, Ricardo Bolanos (Free Church). Grade B: 1, Ged Kuprys (Free Church); 2, Bethany Brewer (Blaenavon). Grade C: 1, Emily Beasley (Free Church) ; 2, Chris Jones (Free Church). Improvers: 1, Tyler Humphries (Rugby); 2, Josh Tyagi (Rugby). Beginners: 1, Aidan Mulligan (Streetly); 2, George Barnes (Free Church).

There was an exciting finale to Division One of the National Cadet League at Wellingborough on Sunday when Lillington A, having won all of their matches - Westfield (Wellingborough) 6-0, Bedford A and St Neots B 5-1 and Milton Keynes A 4-2 - had to face St Neots A in the last match, who had won all of their matches 6-0.

Ricardo Bolanos and Nikit Sajiv put Lillington 2-0 up with straight-set wins over Daniel Hearne-Potton and Luke Manning, respectively.

Emily Beasley then lost 3-2 to Kamran Bastani and Bolanos also lost in five to Manning to square the match.

However, Beasley bounced back magnificently to stun Hearne-Potton in a 3-1 victory in which she incorporated a full range of attacking shots including devastating forehands down the line.

In the last match of the day, in front of a huge audience, Sajiv showed nerves of steel to defeat Bastani 3-1 and continue Lillington’s winning trend with a 4-2 success.

However, St Neots topped the division on 25 points with Lillington on 24.

Sajiv won all ten of his matches and Bolanos suffered just the one defeat.

Lillington B gained promotion from Division Two when finishing second with Josh Yarrow winning ten out of ten.