Irvinestown Tennis Club was the venue for the Tennis Ireland Fermanagh Veterans Championships, sponsored by APC Mechanical Gas engineers & supported by Fermanagh & Omagh District Council.

Sunday promised to be a superb line up of finals and with ideal weather conditions it duly delivered. For local competitors it turned out to be a great day winning the County titles with some great tennis.

In the Over 30s Greg Boxer proved too strong on the day as he produced amazing controlled tennis in his 6-0, 6-1 win over John Slowey in the Men’s Singles event.

John had a great week at the event, he just didn’t get his timing and power game going on the day as we know he can.

In the Doubles, Paul Crilly and Ryan Cuthbertson had a great win over the number one seeds, and great friends, Francis Venzon and Robert Thompson with a Championship Tie break win 10-8 - four really young talented players showing they will be to the fore in this new veterans age group.

In the Ladies Singles, Nikki Hawkes proved too strong for her opponents in a round robin format taking the title while Kathryn McDowell finished runner up.

Nikki went on to take the Doubles with Donna McSorley - 6-2 6-1 - over Cavan pair Bernice Clarke and Orla Malone, and runner up in the mixed event with Paul McCrum, while number one seeds Francis Venzon and Elaine Chambers retained their title winning 6-3 6-2.

In the C grade events, David Lowe made it a hat-trick of wins. He won the Singles against Simon McCormack before partnering Simon to win the Doubles and he also won the the mixed with Kathryn McDowell over Valerie Mc Kinley and Peter Wong.

In the C Ladies Doubles Kate Heaver and Ann Louise Hicks were runners up.

In the Over 35s, Francis Venzon took the singles title over Donal Burns while in the Over 40s Donna McSorley had a tremendous tournament.

After winning the Ladies 30 Doubles she won the singles over Kirsty Murray and Doubles with Aoifin Shorten, beating Belfast pair Ailbhe Atkinson and Jenny Lyall 6-2 6-1.

Matthew McGann had his usual successful event by reaching three finals.

In the 40s he played a tremendous match, but narrowly lost out to Sean Moloney 6-7 3-6, with hard hitting long rallies from both players.

In the over 45s again Matthew played some great tennis but it wasn’t to be as Alex Lliev consistency proved too much, winning 6-3 6-2.

The Mixed Doubles with Sonja Hateboar was a cracker of a match against Orla Malone and Bruce Williams with all four players playing well throughout the match but the Cavan pair just clinched it in two straight tight sets 7-5 7-5.

Stephen King with partner Colin Waterson finished runner up in the mens over 40s Doubles.

In the Over 50 s Martina Boyd and Vanessa McBrien had a great win in the Ladies Doubles over No 1 seeds Amanda Leeman and Jenny Lyall Belfast

This was a great match all four ladies giving their all as it went to a Championship Tiebreak, 10-7.

Andy Moore and John Maguire lost out to No 1 seeds Stephen Leeman and Willie Noteman in the Men’s Doubles.

This was a quality match but in the end the Belfast pair took the match in straight sets, 6-4 6-1

In the Mixed event the in-form pair of Vanessa Mc Brien and Roger Howe once again made the final at this grade but this time came across the more steady pair of Stephen and Amanda Leeman who won 6-2, 6-1.

In the Over 55s Ciaran Gillen proved too strong on his last match to win the title 6-0 6-1, while in the Over 60s Doubles John Maguire and David Cunningham took the title . After a bit of a blip in first set the Irish winning pair took full control and dominated the match winning 6-3 6-1 over Ballycastle pair Charlie Mc Veigh & Maurice Roberts .

After all the matches were played

Club President David Lowe thanked the sponsors and Bawnacre Centre for their continued support for the event .

He thanked all the players from around Ireland for attending the event and the tournament committee for all the hard work over the week to ensure the smooth running of matches played .