King holds all the aces as Gonzaga retain trophy

A sun-blessed Sutton Tennis Club provided a superbly-appointed backdrop to the Ballygowan Senior Schools' Cup national finals. The top 16 schools from the regional play-offs, eight boys and eight girls (under-19), qualified for the finals in what is the second year of the tournament.

Gonzaga College retained the boys' title they won last season, while Santa Sabina prevailed in the girls' equivalent, reversing the result from last season's final against Mount Anville.

Six regional qualifiers were staged earlier in the year - it should have been eight but the foot-and-mouth crisis intervened - with two schools, a boys and girls, emerging from each section: four "lucky losers" were drafted in to complete the 16-school finals tournament.

The format was that each match consisted of a best of 13 games contest with all games played: those players who reached the final would have played 52 games in very warm conditions. Each team consisted of four players, two singles matches and a doubles.

The quality of tennis throughout the day was of a very high standard and a credit to the combatants. In the boys' tournament, Blackrock avenged last season's round robin defeat by Belvedere to win their section of that stage and in the final they were opposed by last year's winners, Gonzaga, led by Irish under-16 indoor champion, Barry King.

Blackrock lost Gareth Doran, brother of Davis Cup player John, due to injury prior to the tournament but coped admirably. King's 11-2 victory over Robert Kernan was offset by the victory of the Blackrock doubles combination of Killian Pender and John William Devine, who won by a similar margin. Patrick Doran's 8-5 win over Andrew Hogan decided the final.

In the girls' final, Mount Anville never looked like repeating last year's success, after Santa Sabina's Caroline McNulty and Leigh Walsh - still under 14 - won their respective singles 12-1 and 11-2. Mount Anville's Naomi MacHale and Alexia Tierney won the doubles rubber 8-5.

BOYS' FINAL: Gonzaga 21, Blackrock 18 (Gonzaga names first: B King bt R Kernan 11-2; P Doran bt A Hogan 8-5; A Corcoran and P Halpin lost to K Pender and J William Divine 211).

GIRLS' FINAL: Santa Sabina 28 Mount Anville 11. (Santa Sabina names first: C McNulty bt S Griffith 12-1; L Walsh bt J Lawlor 11-2; L Bracken and L Walsh lost to N MacHale and A Tierney 5-8).