Unfancied pair battle it out in the men's county final

The second day of the County Championships took place on Sunday at St Nicholas Leisure Centre, with the top two seeds bowing out in the last eight of the men's singles.
Jo Outhwaite beat Emma Kilpatrick to win the restricted ladies' singles.Jo Outhwaite beat Emma Kilpatrick to win the restricted ladies' singles.
Jo Outhwaite beat Emma Kilpatrick to win the restricted ladies' singles.

Rugby number one Ryan Stockham exited at the hands of number five seed Pat Glynn of Smith’s Wood, Birmingham, while second seed Ryan Lines, also of Rugby, went down to Lillington Free Church junior Timmy Cooper.

With Glynn then falling to his veteran clubmate Andrew Frain and Cooper exiting at the hands of fellow Free Church player Lee Dorning, both in five, two unseeded players contested the final.

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Frain went on to defeat the current county junior champion 12-10, 11-8, 6-11, 11-5 to claim the title.

The ladies’ singles threw up a shock in the groups where Free Church junior Jenny Singleton knocked out number four seed Milly Bradshaw of Rugby.

However, Singleton went out to the hot favourite Kate Hughes of Colebridge in the last four.

The other semi-final was a repeat of the previous week’s junior girls’ final with Free Church’s Olivia Fletcher again getting the better of Colebridge’s Lisa Rinnhofer.

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However, Hughes emphasised the gap between her and the county’s nonetheless talented youngsters by overwhelming Fletcher 11-3, 11-2 11-3.

The men’s doubles title went to Rugby in the shape of Ryan Lines and Ryan Stockham who defeated County Council’s Simon Griew and his partner Mark Jackson of St George’s 11-6, 11-8, 11-7.

The ladies’ doubles also went to the formbook, with Hughes pairing with Rinnhofer to defeat Bradshaw and Fletcher 11-5, 11-3, 9-11, 11-6.

Hughes took the mixed doubles with Stockham to make it a trio of titles, beating Bradshaw and Lines in straight games.

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It was an all-Free Church affair in the restricted men’s singles where Dorning grabbed his third title of the championships against his coach Chris Mulligan.

Rugby’s Jo Outhwaite took the restricted ladies’ singles, beating Emma Kilpatrick of Free Church 11-7 in the fifth.

Meanwhile, in the Leamington & District League, bottom side Nomads A posted their best result of the Division One campaign so far with a draw at home to St George’s A.

Damon Fenton posted a treble for the away side and Gary Jackson added two but Nomads bounced back courtesy of a brace from Paul Rowan, singles from reserve Steve Proctor and Tony Thomas and a Rowan/Proctor doubles success.

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Nomads also took three points off high-riding Free Church A.

Timmy Cooper and Lee Dorning both won maximums for Church and Charlotte Spencer notched a seventh point but fell to Rowan and Thomas who took the doubles.

County Council B hammered their A side 9-1 with Nilton Green and Simon Griew unbeaten in singles and doubles and Martin Hunter winning twice and just falling to Pat McCabe.

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