Essex boys won Group 3B of the LTA Junior Inter County Cup at Sunderland last week.

Their wins over Nottinghamshire 8-1, Avon 7-2 and Northumberland 6-3, gave them the title and with it promotion.

Tom Higgins of Gidea Park led the team effort from the No 1 singles berth.

In the opening match he beat Adam Maskill 6-4, 7-6, but injury kept him out of the doubles and the second day match with Avon. He returned for the Northumberland match but lost his singles.

Matthew Schlotter of Gidea Park was in action in all three matches and won all his three singles and three doubles. In singles he was dominant winning 6-4, 6-0, 6-2, 6-2 and 6-2, 6-1.

Ata Khatib of Clearview won his three singles matches and one doubles. Peter French of Billericay won his singles in the opening match.

The rest of the team was Christos Erics, Suk Sahota, Robert Gordon and Simon Cuthbert.

Phil O'Leary, the club coach at Gidea Park, was in charge of the boys team and praised the team's effort.

The Essex girls team were in action in Group 3A at Southend and finished runners-up in the group. They beat Dorset 8-1, lost to Leicestershire 2-7 and beat Devon 8-1.

Melanie Hall of Clearview won two of her three singles matches as did Janice Torr of Billericay.

The rest of the team was Lara, Shama and Sabah Naqushbandi, Catherine Norman, Nicola Rooks and Gemma Garvey.

The team was managed by the new Essex County Performance Officer Howard McGuinness with Brentwood Hard club coach Zoe Truscott his assistant.

It was Howard's debut with Essex Junior teams and he was delighted with the performance of both the boys and girls.

The Pope & Smith Chelmsford Junior Tennis league continues to go from strength to strength.

When the AGM of the league was held at the Billericay club last week a record 25 clubs had entered competition.

There were four new clubs, Pleshey, Basildon, Harlow and Cranbrook Castle. Hylands withdrew.

The league is in its 25th year and now boasts a total of 17 divisions covering girls and boys in age groups 12, 14, 16 and 18.

The boys 12, 14 and 16 age groups each have three divisions while the 18's have two.

In the girls the 14's and 16's have two divisions. All these age groups will be decoded by play-offs to be held at the end of the summer.

The league will also run two Postal Tournaments in the summer and hold special one day competitions, and Pope & Smith have confirmed their support for the 17th successive year.

The committee elected to run the league for 1999 is Chair and Match Secretary -- Lesley Pearce, Secretary and Tournament Organiser -- Harry Brickwood, Treasurer -- Roger Baker. Committee members -- Elaine Richardson, Zoe Truscott and Jackie Jenkins.

Converted for the new archive on 19 November 2001. Some images and formatting may have been lost in the conversion.