Shropshire County Championships proves to be a fantastic celebration of tennis in the county

Tennis players of all ages from across the county helped make the annual Shropshire County Championships a huge success.

The popular event attracted entries from approaching 200 players throughout last week.

Matches were played on The Shrewsbury Club's indoor and outside courts, as well as the Cathie Sabin Community Tennis Centre on the same Sundorne Road site.

Tennis Shropshire chair Fiona Jones said: "It was a terrific week and a fantastic celebration of Shropshire tennis.

"I think the standard was even higher than ever this year with so much impressive tennis on show.

“We have a growing number of players in the county who compete regularly which showed in the large number of high quality matches being played.

"There was a really good crowd there watching the matches on Finals Day and the atmosphere was wonderful.

"It was so nice to look across the courts where you might see an under-nines girls match on one court, an over-55s mixed doubles next to it, with an under-14s boys singles on another court at the same time.

"It just underlined how this is a tournament for all ages, with nearly 200 players taking part throughout a busy and enjoyable week.”

Matches were played from under-eights up to over-55s, with both singles and doubles competitions enjoyed by all the players.

New competitions were also introduced to the Championships for the first time.

An impressive entry of 21 pairs enjoyed playing in the first parents and child sponge ball competition.

The tournament's opening walking tennis competition was also popular and featured players from Wem Tennis Club, Ludlow Castle Tennis Club and Shifnal Tennis Club.

Fiona added: “Amy Dannatt was the tournament referee, ably supported as always by Simon Haddleton, and they both did a wonderful job. The event is so well organised because of their hard work.

“Thanks as well to Keith Smith MBE, the president of Tennis Shropshire, and to our county captains for the Shropshire junior teams for kindly presenting the trophies.”

Click on this link for a full list of this year's winners from the Shropshire County Championships.

Pictured: Some of the players who enjoyed playing in this year's Shropshire County Championships.