Ilkley'S Under-15 boys' tennis team have reached the last 16 in the country of the Rover Under-15 National League Competition.

The team is now down to the last eight in the country after 800 clubs entered the competition - no mean feat.

They beat Northumberland Lawn Tennis and Squash Club 4-2 in a nail-biting match. After three rubbers, Ilkley led 2-1 with Johnny Yip beating Matthew Lott 6/2 6/2 and Russ Connolly, overpowering Michael Coles 6/0 6/3 but Martin McCann and Rob Jackson losing to Chris Bowles and Nigel Suggett 6/3 7/5. Although Rob and Martin came back well in the second set, failure to put volleys away as opposed to just getting the ball back cost them dearly aganst Northumberland's experienced pairing.

The match was evenly poised with Johnny and Russ taking the first set of their doubles to love but Rob Jackson had lost his first set of singles 6/0 and Martin MacCann was 4-0 down.

Russ and Johnny moved on to win the doubles 6/0 6/3 but Ilkley still needed to win one of the remaining singles to take the match.

Martin McCann pulled back well to four-all but eventually lost after a hard-fought game 4/6 5/7.

So it was down to Rob Jackson. In a truly remarkable turnaround, Rob dug in and squared the singles tie at one set each. Down to the final set and after a couple of early breaks of service, Rob romped home 6/0 to win 0/6 6/4 6/0.

The team now travels to the North Midlands to play the winners of that region with the exciting prospects of reaching the national finals to be played at Bilesley Indoor Centre, Birmingham, on M/18 October 1998.

The club as achieved further success in the Bradford Parks League, which allows both boys and girls to play in a team of four, with the Under 15 team winning the league by 42 points to Eldwick's 40 and the under 18 team finishing in second place to Eldwick, Eldwick 42 points, Ilkley 38 points.

Ilkley were represented very well in the latter stages of the Yorkshire Championships held at Hull.

Besides the Yorkshire championships Lancashire were hosting theirs at the same time in Southport.

John Chesworth, from Ilkley, won the Under-18 singles, doubles and mixed doubles. In1996 he won the U-16 and in 1997 was runner-up. He won the Open Junior title in 1998, Boys singles, Boys Doubles (partner Fergus Adams) and Mixed Doubles (partner Daniel Hocks). This year he has beaten four of the UK's top 20 juniors. He won Ilkley Club Singles championship in Mens and Doubles titles in Ilkley Open and Torbay Open. He played number one for Lancashire Juniors for the past 12 months.

Results: Division Five Final - Lindsay Rawling (Ilkley) beat Vicky Wild (Ilkley) 6-1, 4-6, 6-0.

Mixed Doubles Final - Andy Ronkowski v Vicky Wild (Ilkley) lost to D Kitchen and V Harne (Hull) 6-3, 6-3.

Under-18 Boys' Final - Matthew Parry (Ilkley) beat B Pearson (Heaton) 4-6, 7-6, 6-4.

Under-16 Boys' Final - Jonathan Yip (Ilkley) beat B Pearson (Heaton) 6-3, 4-6, 8-6.

Under-10 Boys' Final - Mihalis Kouvatsos (Ilkley) lost to S Lucar (Hull) 6-1, 6-3.

Converted for the new archive on 30 June 2000. Some images and formatting may have been lost in the conversion.