Louise wins two at Under 17s Championships

Louise Thacker won two titles at the County Under 17s Restricted Championships played at the Sewell Park Sports Centre, with the remainder being well spread amongst the 22 entrants.

The girls singles was played in three groups, with number two and three seeds, Sophie Piper and Holly Bowen each comfortably winning their respective groups to set up a very close and hard fought semi-final which Piper won 16-21, 21-18, 21-19. In the third group, the number one seed and last year's winner, Serena Verney lost out to Thacker who then managed to keep one step ahead of Piper in the final to take her first title 22-20,21-18.

In the girls doubles the deciding match was between Verney and Thacker and Piper and Bowen which led to the second title for Thacker when she and Verney emerged victorious in the third set, winning 15-13,13-15,15-12.

The boys singles was played in three groups, with the event going with seeding and Mark Robinson and Luke Cox emerging clear winners from their groups to play a semi-final which was won by Cox 21-17,21-7. This gave rise to probably the best final that these championships has seen for many years between Cox and number one seed Andrew Carrier, which was eventually won by Carrier 21-18, 16-21, 24-22, giving him the title for the second successive year.In the boys doubles the deciding match was won by Robinson and Cox who beat Carrier and Ashley Robb 15-8, 9-15, 15-13.to take the title.

The final event of an exhausting day was the mixed doubles, which was played in two groups, the first being won comfortably by Piper and Carrier, whilst the second was won equally comfortably by Verney and Cox. After a very tiring day, the final did suffer and was won by the pair with the greatest reseves of energy, Verney and Cox 15-6,16-14.