By MARK EDWARDS AN Oxfordshire tennis club's decision to refuse any tournaments to be played on their courts has been branded short-sighted and 'absolutely deplorable' by county officials.

North Oxford Tennis Club decided to withdraw all goodwill to the Oxfordshire Lawn Tennis Association (OLTA) and the Lawn Tennis Association after their mens and mixed A teams were thrown out of the league.

Both teams had twice postponed fixtures without following the regulations that the league has set out.

North Oxford claim that they had players taking part in other events, which the regulations state take precedence over league matches and insist they have done nothing wrong.

"We're claiming that the league are ignoring their own rules in order to scratch us from the league," said North Oxford's acting-chairman Andrew Barr.

Barr now believes that the ruling will have a detrimental effect on the rest of the league.

"Our Mens A team will now be playing in Division 2, while the B team will replace the old C team that was relegated from Division 4 and so on. "The decision will almost certainly ensure that teams in 11 divisions, through no fault of their own, will be subject to playing opponents of a significantly higher quality than themselves.

"We feel that we have been totally unfairly treated and the whole point of this decision is to embarrass the OLTA and cause some discomfort in the county. We want to involve them in some hassle," Barr said.

The decision to withdraw all involvement from the county events was taken after a management committee meeting at the club, where a unanimous verdict was reached.

"All we hope now is that the league committee think twice before issuing such punishments. Hopefully, things will settle down in the future."

But League secretary Jackie Robinson said: "We totally stand by our decision.

"I categorically deny that any conversation took place between myself and the captains of North Oxford and this is clearly stated must happen. "I don't understand their mentality of refusing to stage these tournaments really, as they have entered all their teams in the league again this season.

"The decision they have reached is absolutely deplorable.

"They are certainly not hurting the league, but instead are hurting the juniors and the prestige of the county."

County chairman John Harrop says that it is the county as a whole that will suffer from the decision.

"Two of the tournaments they will no longer be holding - the inter-county cup and Oxfordshire Junior Open - are not OLTA events anyway.

"I think it will be the juniors who are hit the most and that seems to be very short-sighted of them to me," he added. The refusal to hold the inter-county cup on their ten grass courts comes as a blow to the LTA, who admit that the event will now not take place anyway in Oxfordshire.

"We are very sorry to hear the news about North Oxford, as this was one of the best venues for the event," said LTA secretary John James.

"We are already looking elsewhere, but if they change their minds in the future, they will be considered again - if they continue to have the quality of grass courts they presently play on.

"We are disappointed that the situation has occurred as the club and county relationship will undoubtedly suffer from this," he added.

North Oxford say that no review of the situation will take place until 19 October, 2000.

Story date: Friday 19 November

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