LAST Saturday saw the junior and cadet Worcestershire County Closed Champion-ships held at Christopher Whitehead School, Worcester with players from Dudley, Evesham, Kidderminster, Bromsgrove, Redditch, Worcester and Malvern all taking part.

In the cadets, Malvern was represented by four players in Mark Griffiths, Geoff Burford, Jack Higgs and Ben Salisbury, with both Jack and Ben going all the way to produce an all Malvern final.

This produced the game of the day! The first set saw Jack win it easily with some fine attacking top spin shots on both the forehand and back hand sides. But Ben then tightened his game up to stop Jack attacking so easily and won the next two sets to give him a 2-1 lead.

The fourth set was close but Jack won it to take the game to a fifth and deciding set. This saw Ben get off to a good start with Jack always trailing as Ben moved into a 10-5 lead. Jack refused to give in and pulled the score back to 10-9 but Ben then hit a strong backhand drive to win it by the narrowest of margins 11-9 to make him this year's new county cadet champion for the first time.

In the junior competition, Malvern was represented by nine players in Joe Higgs, David Smith, Anthony Wiseman, Matt Lang, James Clarke, Tom James and Mark, Jack and Ben. Joe went the furthest in reaching the semi-finals but lost in three straight sets to the eventual winner Matt Hutton from Dudley.

Malvern can also boast the fact that they had three out of four players in the boy's doubles final which was won by Joe Higgs and Anthony Wiseman against Matt Lang and Matt Hutton.

This has possibly been Malvern's most successful year ever at these championships and much of the credit must go down to the coaching sessions which are held every Sunday night at Dyson Perrins School and the dedication of the coaches involved.