Durham County Under-21 Tournament

On Sunday, November 17 , 2002 the Under-21 Tournament took place at Ferryhill Leisure Centre and the ladies events were dominated by Darlington 16-year-old Louise Trueman. In the Ladies single she won through to the semi-finals where she defeated Claire Tumelty (Aycliffe) 21-10. The other semi-final was won by Hartlepool's Kirsty Whitehouse who beat Sunderland's Helen McLeod 21-13. In the final Kirsty put up a spirited fight before Louise eased home a 21-12 winner. These two girls then teamred together in the ladies doubles and here Louise secured her second championship win. In the semi-final they overwhelmed Claire Tumelty and Kamila Patel, (Washington) 15-3 going on to meet Lindsey Wheatley (Gateshead) and Hayley Robson (Cleadon) who had defeated youngsters Charlotte Head (Wynyard) and Ruth MacKenzie (Durham) 15-11. Louise and Kirsty proved to strong a pairing in the final and triumphed 15-7.

Louise going for a treble triumph in the mixed doubles partnering Sunderland's Adam Coulson was thwarted at the final hurdle when they were defeated in a hard fought final 21-15 by Aycliffes James Winfield partnered by Sunderlands Helen McLeod. The losing semi-finalists being David Shariff (Darlington) with Hayley Robson (Cleadon) and Richard Eaton (Washington) with Claire Tumelty, (Aycliffe).

The mens singles saw the north of the county dominating with Ian Lambert (Washington) defeating Richard Eaton (Washington) 21-17 in the first semi. The second saw Adam Coulson beat James Knox (Sunderland) 21-14. The younger boy Coulson then defeated Lambert 21-18 in a very close final. The men's doubles saw Lambert and Eaton beat Knox and James Winfield 15-3 in a surprisingly one sided final.