Claire Wilson celebrated her first call up for England Schoolgirls with a gold and silver at the British Schools International Invitation championships held in Cardiff last weekend.
At 15 Claire was the youngest member of the England side and teamed up with Cheshire's Katy Ingham in the England B team. The pair opened with a 5-0 win over Iceland and then came back from 1-2 down to beat Wales 3-2.
A 4-1 win over Ireland and an easy 5-0 victory over Guernsey set up a battle for gold and silver with England A. Despite a brilliant win over England No 1 Annabel Sorrentino by Claire and a comfortable win by Katy of England No 2 Kerry Radford, the girls lost the crucial doubles set losing 2-3.
However, the individual events followed and after a comfortable semi-final win over Welsh pair Gemma Thomas and Claire Ford, the England B pair got their revenge over Sorrentino and Radford with a straight sets final victory to win gold.
Claire looked set for a semi-final clash with Sorrentino in the singles after three straight sets wins in the qualifying stage beating Hayley Webb (Guernsey), Kristan Hjalmarsdottir (Iceland) and England teammate Kerry Radford. However, in a shock defeat Claire's doubles partner sent Katy Ingham into the quarter-finals and she too looked destined to lose in straight sets to the impressive Darlington girl. A 2-0 sets lead and 6-2 lead in the third gradually eroded away and Ingham sneaked into the semi-finals
England Under-18 girls coach praised Claire's performance in her first schoolgirls' international event. "After a nervy start against Iceland, Claire soon showed just how good a player she is and at only 15 she was a match for any player as she showed in beating Annabel Sorrentino and Kerry Radford," said girls coach Ann Humble. Along with the rest of the Darlington junior squad, Claire will spend the next seven weeks preparing for the Grand Prize tournament in Liverpool in late August.
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