Junior competition is hotting up at Ilkley Lawn Tennis and Squash Club following their recent Performance Centre LTA accreditation.

Providing more competitive opportunities is one of the key elements in attaining performance centre status and the junior players are now able to put their newly learned skills to the test from a very young age.

In the first of this year's mini tennis tournaments for juniors aged from 5-8, there were some exciting matches played and some new tennis talent was in evidence.

In the Mini tennis orange category (3/4 court softer ball) 16 juniors took part and Harry Brayshaw came first beating Gregory Cox in the final.

This was a great achievement for the two players considering that Harry is only six and Gregory is still five. The final was a closely fought encounter going to a tie-break third set.

The losing semi-finalists were Joshua Waley and Scott Brayshaw.

In the mini tennis red category (sponge ball-mini court) many of the children, were experiencing their first tournament. The format was relatively relaxed and the children were able to enjoy playing many matches.

The winners of the two groups were Nikki Corless and Charlie Snowdon with Arthur Waley, Charlie Austin and Joel Dowson also playing very well.

Nikki won the final, two tie breaks to nil against Charlie in a high standard match.In the West Yorkshire 9 & Under Championship race, Ilkley staged the fist tournament in the circuit and for many children this was their first tournament on a hard ball against children from other Yorkshire clubs.

Jasper Morvaridi, Dominic Cox, and Sian Morgan won both of their matches. Jack Harrison, Rory Stead, Hannah Pulford and Chloe Pinkney won one match each. All players entered played incredibly well and the future looks promising with a large group of children now competing from an early age.

Many more tournaments are already scheduled for this year and it will be interesting to see more new young names hit the headlines.