By Secretary PS Neil Gibson    

The tennis section had a consolidation year.

Neil Gibson and Paul Barnes qualified for the men's doubles event at the National Championships held inTorquay by the Devon & Cornwall police.

Roger Ravenscroft and Neil Gibson also qualified for the men's singles.

The event started promisingly with Ravenscroft making a spirited display against the reigning champion from the Met – Dave Reed,  eventually succumbing mainly due to fatigue in a closely fought second set.

Gibson beat off two challenges and made it through to the semi-final of the singles to be played the following day.

Barnes & Gibson ousted previous champions Clarke & Quinton from Norfolk Constabulary in the doubles and reached the semi finals, again to be played the following day ……….

It is unknown what happened that night (sabotage of food & drink by the Met possibly?) but nobody won a match the following day – some very lacklustre performances from all concerned producing mediocre displays,  still, there's

always next year.

The section is actively seeking to recruit new members to add to the ageing profile & anyone interested (of any standard whatsoever) should contact either Neil Gibson at Eastern CMU or Paul Barnes (the only success story of our youth development project) at Preston Police Station.

2004 top

By Secretary PS Neil Gibson    

The tennis section had another busy and successful year.

Neil Gibson and Roger Ravenscroft  won the police  North West Regional men's doubles event hosted by Greater Manchester Police at Bolton.

They then represented the force at the National Championships ,hosted this year by the Strathclyde Constabulary in Glasgow.

They narrowly lost in the semi-final of the competition to the previous winners and  highly experienced pair from GMP-Bromley and Bentley.

At the same event, Neil Gibson reached the final of the men's singles event ,before eventually losing to Dave Reed of the Metropolitan police.

Neil Gibson again represented the British police in two matches ,helping them to record victories against the British Army and National Tennis Centre at Nottingham.

Any person wishing to participate in competitive tennis (at whatever level)-contact DS 1274 Neil Gibson at Eastern CMU or PS 453 Barnes at Preston custody office.

If there is sufficient interest in 2005, we propose holding  the force tournament in May 2005.

2003 top

By Secretary PS Neil Gibson

The section had another successful season in 2003.

Neil Gibson represented the British police in their annual fixture against the Nottingham National Tennis Centre in April .He was also selected for the European Championships in Holland, but was unfortunately unable to attend.

Lancashire hosted the Regional Championships at the South Ribble Tennis Centre in June 2003. A special thank you goes out to Paul Barnes and Neil Gibson for all the hard work they put in to stage the tournament at that location.

Three players qualified from that event to represent the force in the National Championships held at Norwich in September.  Roger Ravenscroft won the men's singles event and Neil Gibson and Paul Barnes won the menus doubles.

At the Nationals, Neil Gibson won his eighth national men's open singles title, when he defeated Ian Duggan from South Wales in straight sets in the final.

Neil Gibson and Paul Barnes improved upon their first round loss of last year ,to reach the final of the men's open doubles – losing narrowly to R.Clarke and I.Quinton from Norfolk in three sets .     

Roger Ravenscroft won through his first round, before being eliminated by a former champion, D.Reed from the Metropolitan police, in the second round.

2002 top

By Secretary PS Neil Gibson

The section is anxious to attract new members and anyone interested in playing, whatever they're standard, should contact the tennis secretary.

An extremely successful year for the tennis section-building on previous years with increased participation and success at regional and national level.

PS 453 Paul Barnes from Central Division won the north-west regional men's singles championship held at Bolton by GMP and thereby qualified for the National Championships to be held in Cardiff.

Jenny Watling and Helen Canty from Southern Communications won the Ladies doubles and also qualified for Cardiff. Helen and Jenny were also selected to be part of the British squad and participated in a training event and match held at Nottingham in 2002.

PS 1274 Gibson from Eastern Division retained his national men's singles title (winning it for the seventh time) at Cardiff by defeating Ian Duggan from South Wales 6-2,6-2.He again represented the British police at Nottingham. Neil has also been co-opted on to the PAA National committee for tennis, representing the north-west region.

2001 top

By Secretary PS Neil Gibson

PS Neil Gibson once again won the PAA Nationals for at least the 7th or 8th year running. Neil also qualified for the British Police Team.

Ladies, PC Watling and Ms Cawty made it through to the quarterfinals in the doubles.