Tennis: Janet Agnew Carnival Doubles Tournament

Blake Anderson, of Kaiwaka, playing in the mens B Grade final on Saturday.

Northland's most popular tennis tournament may have been slightly down on numbers, but a couple of visitors from Scotland showed the event's pulling power.

Elma McCulloch from Scotland was part of the 28th Janet Agnew Carnival Doubles Tournament where she competed in the A Grade Ladies doubles with her daughter, Craigie - who is from Parnell Club in Auckland.

Tournament organiser Raewyn Heywood said the event was down on numbers because a number of out-of-towners' local interclub competitions had kicked off.

She added that while a number came from outside of Northland, there was still plenty of room for new locals to join in - especially females.

"We need some more girls, they go to university and we never see them again," Heywood said.

Defending champions Ben Muller (Mairtown) and Ben Davies (Ngataringa club, Auckland) took out the men's A Grade with a convincing win over Northland players Keith Cocking and Merv Tane.

The men's B Grade was a battle of the father/son combinations with Innes and Blake Anderson from Kaiwaka scraping a win over Grant and Connor Van Dalsum from Mangawhai.

In the women's A Grade youth prevailed with Alana Torrie from Mangawhai and Ella McKinlay from Kerikeri managing to topple last year's champions Raewyn Heywood and Shelley Yeates in a closely fought final.

The Mairtown combination of Laurette Anderson and Ivy Rakich came through with a surprise three set win over their fellow club mates, Cheryl Baker and Julie Taylor, to take out the women's B Grade.

In the final of the A Grade Ben Davies and Craigie McCulloch were too strong for Paul and Sonya Shearer from Cockle Bay with a convincing 6-0, 6-2 win.

However, the B Grade mixed doubles was a much more closely fought three set match with the local father/daughter pairing of Paul and Gabrielle Sykes proving too dominant in the end for twin 15-year-olds Connor and Baylee Van Dalsum from Mangawhai.