ILKLEY Tennis Club are well placed to win the Yorkshire Men’s Division One title for the first time in 15 years.

They have a 100 per cent record with six wins in six games and are pushing hard on the heels of defending champions Beverley, who have seven wins in eight matches.

That one defeat came at the hands of Ilkley who beat them 7-2.

Ilkley know that if they can in their remaining games against Barnsley on August 31 and Thongsbridge on September 14, the title will be theirs.

In the past fortnight, Ilkley have defeated both Roundhay 6-3 and Beverley to strengthen their position.

With both matches affected by the unseasonable August weather, Ilkley took advantage of home facilities and played both fixtures indoors.

Against Roundhay the top pairing of James Ickringill and Cameron Malik recorded excellent victories in all their three matches Ickringill and Malik came hot off a great performance in the previous weeks Ilkley Open and looked sharp throughout – a fact made obvious by the scorelines they recorded.

The second pairing of Jonny Dow and Ed Young were victorious in two of their three encounters and the third pairing of Chris Truss and Michael Smith secured an important point with a fine win over their third-pair counterparts.

Dow and Young were taken to three sets in their first two rubbers, managing to convert one to a victory and recording a narrow loss to Roundhay’s top pairing of Harper and Jervis.

This was followed by a more straight forward victory over Roundhay’s third pair in their final match.

In the crunch match of the summer against previously unbeaten Beverley, Ilkley fielded their strongest line up of the season to ensure a top- quality victory over their East Yorkshire rivals.

At first pair Kyle Brassington and Andy Hutchinson were narrowly beaten by Beverley’s excellent first pairing of Davies and Brunt, eventually being pipped in a championship tie-breaker 6-7, 7-6, 11-9, although this was avenged by comprehensive victories over Beverley’s second and third pairings.

Ilkley’s second pair of Steve Hunt and Ickringill found themselves in a similar position with comfortable victories against Beverley’s second and third pairs, but coming up just short against Beverley’s top two.

That left it up to Ilkley’s third pairing of Cameron Johnston and Jonny Dow to bely their position and deliver victories against all three of Beverley’s doubles teams – the final match of the day being against Beverley’s top pair, which they did.

lILKLEY’S Amber Woffindin was beaten in the first round of the 12 and under girls’ singles on Tuesday at the Nike Junior National Championships, at the West Hants Club in Bournemouth.

Amber, who was in a 32-strong draw featuring some of the best players in the country, lost 6-2, 6-1 to Scarlett Hutchinson.

The Nike Junior Championships are the pinnacle of the summer domestic calendar, featuring more than 250 players across four age groups and is a showcase for British junior talent.

The ‘Junior Nationals’ have been running for over 100 years and have an illustrious line of past winners, including Andy Murray, Heather Watson, Tim Henman, Elena Baltacha and Anne Keothavong.

lFORMER Woodhouse Grove pupil Naomi Broady will not be keeping Heather Watson and Johanna Konta company in the US Open women’s singles draw after losing in straight sets to American Tornado Alicia Black.

The 24-year-old Stockport native, part of the qualifying draw at Flushing Meadows for the third consecutive year, would have approached her first-round qualifier full of confidence after winning three tournaments on the ITF circuit this year but lost 7-5 (8-6), 7-6 (7-2) in two hours and 16 minutes.

lBen Rhydding mixed tennis team have won promotion to the second division of the Bradford Friendly League, after winning all of their matches so far this season.

Ben Rhydding Tennis Club is unique in West Yorkshire in playing all of its home league matches and all of its social tennis on grass, at Ben Rhydding Sports Club.

The men’s team plays in the Bradford Parks league.

Anyone interested in joining the club should ring 01943 600902 and speak to Roger Webb.