Two host club members safely negotiated the opening phase of qualifying for the men's singles yesterday at the Ilkley leg of the British Tour.

But one will go out today in the first round of the second stage as 21-year-old Bath University student Jonathan Yip will meet full-timer Kyle Brassington, who celebrated his 17th birthday a day late last Saturday by winning the boys' under-18 singles at the West Bridgford tournament in Nottingham.

Yip qualified by continuing what is turning out to be a miserable summer for Bingley's Saad Abas by defeating him 7-6 (7-1), 6-1.

Brassington, who trains with Jim Edgar's squad at Bolton Arena, beat Michael Brown 6-4, 6-4.

However, there were defeats for two other Ilkley members, Martin McCann and Ryan Royston.

Northumbria University student McCann, 20, lost 6-4, 6-2 to American Charles Tsuda, and was never the same player after breaking a string at 4-4 in the first set. "That meant I had to use a racquet with a hairline crack in the frame," said McCann

It was a first singles match in four years for Royston, who is more used to teaching children and playing centre half for Maidstone United than employing the centre theory on a tennis court.

And a pulled stomach muscle didn't help the 23-year-old - probably the result of a 15-minute service game - and he lost 7-5,

6-3 to Tom Sutton from the Sutton Tennis Academy in Surrey.

The best-known name on view yesterday was 51-year-old Jasper Cooper.

The former Hampshire county player, who was No 20 in Britain in 1976, did well to win his first-round match 4-6, 6-4, 6-3 against Eugene Bann, but, although he showed some nice touches around the net, a second match was asking too much for the bearded wonder and he lost 6-0, 6-0 to Cleveland's Nick Osborne.

Cooper, playing the tournament while he watches his children Rebecca, 19, and Joe, 18, who are both full-time, said: "It is a bit much at my age playing two matches so close together, but I am still in the men's doubles with Joe and the over-45 men's singles and doubles."