Humble Ogier plays down glory

PATRICK OGIER upset the title-favourite Chris Hickling to land his first island senior title. I suppose it was a bit of an upset beating Chris. He didn't play at his best, but he made it a good match,' said the new champion.

'It was definitely one of my best performances. It's a long time since I've played that well.'

Ogier capped a brilliant weekend by winning the men's doubles tournament as well. Ogier and partner Tim Creasey were unseeded, but they won the final in three sets against Hickling and Andy Privett.

'It was a great couple of days for me. I was lucky that my partner played really well in the doubles,' commented a modest Ogier after his second success of the week-long tournament.

Earlier in the week, Ogier secured a berth in the singles final with a convincing two-set defeat of Andy Ewing in the last four.

Tournament referee Quinten Rose said that the men's singles' final was the best tennis seen locally since the Games. And he thought that the standard of play in the women's competition was generally better than at the Games.

'I would say we've seen a better display in the women's event than at the Games, when some of the tennis was pretty dire,' said Rose.

The women's singles was won by Jo Robinson in two sets against Chantelle de la Mare.

Robinson emulated Ogier by winning the doubles as well. She teamed up with Bridget Yabsley and the Games gold medal-winning pair recovered from losing the first set on a tie-break to win the final two sets 6-1 and 6-0 against Madonna McNichol and Chantelle de la Mare.

Doubles tennis is often more exciting than singles at amateur level.

Certainly one of the best matches of the tournament was the men's doubles semi-final in which Ogier and Creasey beat the fancied Games pair of Ian Robinson and Richard Smeed in three sets.

Meanwhile, St Martin's Tennis Club's fantastic run in the junior National Club League has been ended by an outfit from Hampshire.

St Martin's would have been crowned NCL southern region champions had they beaten Haddenham, but without their top player Rob West, who was stuck in the UK, they went down.