This is my neck of the woods, as you may remember from last year.

I've been a little busy this week and been unable to make it down to the tournament as of yet, but I'm planning to go tomorrow for a while, so I'll report on the goings-on. :)

I was at Ilkley today and while I don't have time for a detailed report I will make a few comments.

Firstly the many problems with live scores wasn't the fault of the ITF website. The umpires electronic scorers kept losing their connection, apparently the same thing happened last year so is probably something to do with the location.

The O'Mara match was a strange affair, Jonny played some quite delightful tennis at times and was easily the better player but a combination of good serving by his opponent and Jonny breaking himself at the end of the first set, after winding himself up in to frenzy of frustration and anger, led to a much closer scoreline than it should have been. At 5-7, *0-1 he it looked like he might implode but to his credit he focussed his seething rage, seemingly caused by losing the first set, bad calls and lots of bad bounces, into something positive and got himself back into the match quickly going a break up. As I have said before I think Jonny has a lot of potential and has lots of ways to hurt opponents on court. If he can add consistency to his game and cut out the occasional bouts of immaturity I don't see why he can't have a pretty solid career.

Marzi v Malik wasn't the greatest match you will ever see but it was was a really hard fought affair with both guys having to dig deep when their backs were against the wall. Was one of those matches where who ever lost was going to be bitterly disappointed.

Cash was totally dominant against Kivanda and the 2 and 4 scoreline was the least he deserved. He was never troubled on serve but was competitive in all but a couple of return games. His game certainly suits grass and he seems to be developing nicely.

Salisbury v Clayton was a pretty good match and not the total servefest that one might conclude from the score. Joe led 5-2* in the first but Scott came back to win it in the tie-break. Joe then pinched the 2nd on the breaker and looked to be cruising in the third. He led 4-1* and had break points in this game and at 5-2* but both time Scott dug deep to hold and then broke back. Unfortunately for Scott his heroics were for nothing as he played a couple of bad points in the tie break. Scott actually received a time violation, the first time I have ever seen one given in a match without ball kids.

I didn't see much of it but Hudson actually served for the match against Daniell although to provide some context the latter was struggling with a back/shoulder injury.

Didn't see much of Ashley v Jhun but from what I saw Peter was always on top but Alex scrapped away and kept in close. Peter twice failed to serve out the match before he secured the second set on the tie break.

Finally I am tempted to petition the LTA to ban anyone from attending a professional tennis event in the UK if they tut disapprovingly at player demonstrating anger or say something like "some should tell him it's only a game".

Sorry aspirations of earning a living from competition. PS great article on van basten and perfectionism in the Gruniard yesterday. With utmost respects to those officiating at Ilkley they are never going to close to the levels of perfection the players demand of themselves, the players have no choice but accept it is their problem, one they cannot control and manage it without distraction. Van Basten should not have been on the pitch for his wonder goal having stamped on a player earlier what a travesty that would have been.

Ed has taken the first set 6-0

Jonny/James at 3-3

Ryan/Lewis also at 3-3

Neil up a break v Joe

James and Jonny into a 1st set TB just like last week. Will the outcome be the same ? Watch this space. (Or live scores if you prefer.)

With Neil P going well this week and the draw a bit lighter, i'm sure Bob will get a bit more excited about his top 20 in 500.

It's ashame Tom F is out and cannot help....

Jonny has pinched the tie break against Marzi

I would like to see George C to win today(could have won last week and he's against the Brit/Aussie)

Expect Daniell to struggle with his injuries and hope JWH can put back together to back victories.