Enniskillen’s Matthew McGann was runner up in the Mens ‘A’ final while there was doubles success for Irvinestown’s John Maguire at the 2014 West of Ulster Championship.

However, the big winner from the championship was Donegal based Francis Venzon who was to go one better than last year’s double when he completed an impressive clean sweep of the A titles on Sunday last, playing with his typical high energy powerful brand of tennis.

Sponsored for the third year running by Blakes of the Hollow, the Championships saw over 100 players converge on Enniskillen over the course of the week to compete for 15 titles across three grades.

There was an early indication of the competitive tennis to come in the first final of the day as Enniskillen’s Martina Boyd and Irvinestown’s Andrea Irvine performed the great escape in a superb B Ladies Doubles.

Having lost the first set 6-4 they were looking down and out at 2-5 in the second set but they then started to play their best tennis with Martina hitting a number of crucial overhead smashes and Andrea patrolling the baseline to great effect. A run of six games gave then the opening they needed to clinch an amazing 4-6, 7-5, 10-8 victory to take the title. As the day continued it was the ‘A’ players and Francis in particular who took centre stage. In front of the usual large finals day galleries Francis battled to a 6-4 7-5 win in the singles final against fierce local rival Matthew McGann.

With Matthew making a comeback in the second set, a rain delay took the players off court and once they resumed Matthew was unable to regain his earlier momentum. Frances then went on to retain the doubles and mixed titles with his regular partners the evergreen John Maguire from Irvinestown and Elaine Chambers from Butt Hall in Ballybofey.

Special mention goes to Enniskillen Club Chairman Maxine Leary who, while running all aspects of the tournament throughout the week, still managed to find the time and energy to win the C Ladies Doubles with her regular partner Enid Redmond. In taking the B Mens Doubles title with fellow skinner Davy Thompson, Enid’s husband Innes closed out a special day for the Redmond household.

During prize giving Maxine thanked Blakes of the Hollow for their ongoing and generous sponsorship and recognized the close ties that these open events bring between clubs in the wider region.

Results Winners from the local Enniskillen club were B Mens Double’s Innes Redmond/Davy Thompson; B Ladies Doubles Martina Boyd/Andrea Irvine; B Mixed Jimmy Renfrew; C Ladies Singles Heather Williams; C Ladies Doubles Maxine Leary/Enid Redmond Other Winners were A Men’s Singles – Francis Venzon; A Ladies Singles - Donna McSorley; A Men’s Doubles -John Maguire/Francis Venzon; A Ladies Doubles - Maggie Britton/Donna McSorley; A Mixed – Francis Venzon/Elaine Chambers; B Mens Singles-Joe Bonner; B Ladies Singles – Francis Taggart; B Mixed Noreen Cassidy; C Men’s Singles –Adam McQuade; C Mens Doubles- Brendan King/David Lowe; C Mixed-Adam McQuade/Nuala McAleer Consolation Winners: A Events Matthew Duffy, Ronan Maguire/Louise McGann B Events Jimmy Renfrew, Clive Funston/Andrea Irvine, Dominick Burns/Clive Funston, Joanne Daly/Frances Taggart C Events Shane Connolly, Heather Williams/Catherine Sloan, Shane Keaney/Bernie McManus