Hosted by Forster Tennis Club (FTC), 90 tennis players competed in the event with the Country Starz players pairing up with the top country juniors for a round robin social on Friday morning. 

With both the junior and seniors players in town, a novelty lawn bowls event and barbecue were held to welcome all participants to Forster.

Events included were AMT Silver Open, Special and Under 18 in singles, doubles and mixed doubles. 

In the men’s open, Nathan Doney defeated Alex Silcock 6-7, 6-3, 7-5 in a close final. 

In the women’s final it was unseeded player Kaitlyn Staines against number three seed Brooke Winley who took the championship with a 6-2, 6-3 win. 

FTC member Brenton Chambers played a solid tournament with strong and consistent results and reached the semi and quarter final rounds. 

The open doubles titles went to the unseeded team of Rod Stubbs and Blake Denison who took out the top seeded team of Nathan Doney and Ciaran Lavers 6-4, 7-6. 

The women’s open was won by Kaitlyn Staines and Emily Thomson with the withdrawal of Siena De Salis and Dael McKenna. 

The NSW Closed Country Championships junior players took to the courts late Sunday afternoon to start the week off with some great matches from as young as under 10 through to under 16.

Matches commenced early in the morning and were played through to early evening under the lights. 

William O’Neil from Newcastle was at the tournament to watch his son, under 11 player Liam O’Neil, play in his first NSW Country Championship. 

William is a past winner in the men’s singles and doubles of these championships and is the younger brother of Christine O’Neil who was the last female player to win the Australian Open. 

The Clarke family of Blake, Corey and Krystal from Laurieton played across the under 16, under 14 and under 12 singles events and managed wins in their respective age groups. The siblings were lining up for doubles action in afternoon play. 

The family started playing tennis at Sporties under Danny Biancardi and now trains at Coffs Harbour while attending school. 

Several other players managed a minimum of three finals each. Jake Magill from the (Central West), Kaitlyn Staines (Southwest) Cooper Wilkinson and Avril Gardiner (Northwest) and Jessica Tickle (Northeast). 

Congratulations to all FTC juniors who came out to play. Well done to young Jorja Howell who had a win in girl’s under 10 doubles. Many of the club’s juniors are looking forward to the Junior Development Series that stops in Forster on July 27. Thanks goes out to all our volunteers who made this event possible.

Tournament directors Wendy Saville and Ellen Gordon said they were happy with the 11 days of play and were glad to be back in Forster for the tournament.  The NSW Country Championships will return to Forster in 2016. 

 June Southwell