TWO schoolgirls have won a prestigious National tennis title for their club.

Holly Richards, 13, and Jessica Weeks, 12, captured the National Junior Club League Championship for Bexley Lawn Tennis & Squash Rackets Club held at Gosling Sports Park in Welling Garden City.

The road to the title the first ever for the club started for Holly, from Blackfen, and Jessica, who lives in Beckenham, back in March, when they entered the competition.

More than 2,000 club teams took part in two age groups, 13 and under and 17 and under. Apart from Holly and Jessica, Bexley entered four other girls and boys teams. Each pair had to play a singles match each and a doubles.

Competing in the girls under-13 section, Holly and Jessica won seven rounds, all around the Home Counties, south and eastern England before reaching the semi-

finals.

Their 3-0 whitewash of Edgbaston from Birmingham earned them a place in the finals the following day against a team representing Dorset Rackets Centre, who had beaten Queens from Halifax, Yorkshire, also 3-0, at the penultimate stage.

First to do battle was left-handed Jessica, a pupil at Bromley High School. She created a lot of problems for her opponent Emma Bennett, especially with her solid top-spin forehand, relentlessly attacking the Dorset girls backhand before eventually winning 6-1, 6-2.

Holly, who goes Coopers School in Chislehurst, then played Dorsets first string, the diminutive but dynamic Sian Roberts, who initially put up considerable resistance.

But Holly eventually took control before going on to win an entertaining match 6-3, 6-2.

The doubles match that followed was purely academic as the tie had already been won and although only one set was played, it was highly entertaining, with both pairs showing deft skill and intelligent play. The Bexley duo winning 6-3.

Junior team manager Derrick Haines said: It was a fantastic performance. Previously our teams had reached the quarter and semi-finals, but we had never got this far before, and to win was a great achievement.