Lightning win marred by Joseph ankle injury
A BUSY weekend at Loughborough Lawn Tennis Club saw the home club defeat local rivals Charnwood Lawn Tennis Club on Saturday in the final of the Mercury Cup, a county wide event, in the Cup’s centenary year.
This was the final of the 2020 event, carried over due to Covid restrictions and poor weather.
Team Captain Tory Kettle said “We won 5-4 versus Charnwood in a very tight final. It was all decided in the final match between Becky Scrivins and Tom Giles, who won on a 3rd set tie-break.
“It was a massive team effort with Martyn Whait, Claire Wynne, Emily Egan-Morriss and Olly Eades all contributing in previous rounds. We’re very proud to win the Mercury Cup especially in its Centennial year and it’s the first time in 65 years Loughborough LTC has held the title.”
The Loughborough pairings were Tory Kettle and Sam
LOUGHBOROUGH Lightning kept up their challenge for the Vitality Superleague title on Sunday with a 52-42 win over Wasps.
The victory marked the first time Lightning had completed the league double over their Midlands rivals and keeps them second in the league table behind Team Bath.
Haghighat, Becky Scrivins and Tom Giles, Lucy Croucher and Paul Nicholls.
As well as the Mercury Cup, Loughborough staged one of the groups of the Lawn Tennis Association County Cup for Under 12’s on both Saturday and Sunday.
Ten boys groups and ten girls groups were held at various tennis venues throughout the country. Boys Group B was at the Loughborough Club, and consisted of county teams from Bedfordshire, Hertfordshire, Leicestershire and Northamptonshire.
LTA Tournament Referee Phil Latham said: “The weekend went very well, and you could see that a lot of work had been put in by club members in staging this event, with all the Covid restrictions in place. I would like to thank all those club members here in Loughborough for the work they have done to make this a successful event.”
But the win was overshadowed by an ankle injury to wing attack Hannah Joseph which is likely to keep her sidelined for some time.
Lightning started strongly and built up a nine point lead at the end of the first quarter and although Wasps hit back in the second quarter, Lightning closed the half 26-21 ahead.
The third quarter saw Lightning maintain a six point advantage and when the final buzzer sounded at the end of the final quarter,
Lightning had secured a comfortable 52-42 victory, with Mary Cholhok adding an impressive 43 goals to her season’s total of 439 to win the player of the match award.
Afterwards Lightning head coach Sara Bayman paid tribute to her team and reflected on the injury to Hannah Jospeph.
“Her ankle doesn’t look good. It’s hard for me to see that for one of my players but knowing the hard work Hannah has put in this year and the season she’s been having, she’s upset and the rest of the girls are upset. Hopefully we’ll see her back at some point this season.
“I’m proud of the team for their reaction to the injury. We were up and you could have forgiven them for packing it in at that moment but they didn’t, they fought, we tested them and although it wasn’t a perfect display,
“I’m super proud of their effort and their mentality. It was a good performance.”