AN INJURY denied the 2006 IPES Guernsey Junior Closed tournament of a fitting climax. The stage was set for an exciting under-18 boys’ final but an arm injury to Jonny Taylor meant that he could not play his great rival, Ali Higgins, for the title.

‘Jonny hurt his arm during the island senior championships so Ali was given the walkover,’ said tournament organiser Di Hudson.

Higgins and Taylor dominated the senior boys’ competitions.

They won the under-18 and under-16 doubles as partners and they met each other in the under-16 singles. Higgins won on that occasion quite comfortably, 6-4, 6-3.

In the girls’ competitions it was the Megan Hearse and Joanna Dyer show.

The two combined to win the under-14 doubles when they took care of Imogen Oldfield and Kirsty Carre in the final.

Dyer also walked away with the under-14 singles title, with Hearse finishing runner-up.

Hearse, though, got her revenge over Dyer in the under-14 mixed doubles when she joined forces with Oliver Shier to beat Dyer and Nico Robinson in the final.

‘The final of the mixed doubles was the best match of the tournament,’ said Hudson.

‘They were belting the ball really quite well at each other. A lot of the club players came down and it was difficult to get them on court as they were really into watching them play.’

Shier took gold in the under-14 singles and boys’ doubles with Robinson as his partner.

In the under-12 girls’ doubles, sisters Jessica and Jodie Rigby took the honours with Jessica winning the age group’s singles as well.

Alderney’s Chris Sumner was the player to beat as he won both the singles and the doubles in the under-12 boys’ competitions. Joshua McCulloch was his partner in the doubles.

Jack Oldfield won the under-10 boys’ singles.

‘It was a very successful tournament,’ said Hudson. ‘It didn’t have enough players, but the players who were there did well.’

The champions now face their Jersey counterparts. ‘We’ve not had a year for 20 years when we’ve failed to win anything,’ said Hudson. ‘But it will be a hard push this year.’