The WTA comes to Edbaston Priory for a last hurrah and the heavens are weeping

After many years, this event will drop off the calendar in 2010

And yesterday's first round of qualies were washed out with today not looking much better at the moment either

When the tourney does get under way Brit Girls involved in the singles qualifying will be Joss Rae, Tash Khan, Tara Moore, Mandy Elliott, Jade Curtis, Naomi Broady and Sarah Borwell; and in the top half of the Main Draw Mel South and Katie O'Brien (drawn against each other in R1 ) plus Anne Keothavong of course; also Georgie Stoop and Elena Baltacha (drawn against each other in R! ) with as yet Naomi Cavaday the only Brit Girl in the bottom half. Good luck everybody!

No Emily again this week

To dodge the incessant rain, the qualies had to be played indoors which took away the advantage of our girls' grass court experience more than somewhat!

Only Naomi B made it through the qualies; she took down Abigail Spears, 17th qseed (the top qseed had been promoted by a late withdrawal into the Main Draw), in 3 sets in Q2

R1 saw two Brit v Brit encounters; Mel beat Katie 7-5 in the third set tiebreaker to face the top seed and world #15, Jie Zheng of China, in R2 ; Bally beat Georgie 3&4 and faces the 5th seed in R2

Top Brit and 11th seed Annie K had a comfortable win 2&2 over Arvidsson (who had been top qseed before being hoicked upstairs which turned out to be not such an unalloyed stroke of luck!)

The bottom half of the draw now has the two Naomis; Naomi C has already earned her place in R2 with a terrific win in straight sets over Julie Ditty ; and Naomi B came within one point of R2 more than once before the rain intervened leaving the match poised overnight 4-5 in the third with Naomi having to come out in the morning to serve to stay in the match

Good luck Naomi B ; make it 5 Brit Girls in R2

Great result for Naomi C today!

Pulled off probably the best result of her career in R2 before the rain set in again by beating world #47 Tamarin Tanasugarn of Thailand 7-6(5) 2-6 6-4

Not so good for the other Naomi whose match was poised with angst overnight; she lost her serve to lose the third set 4-6

Annie also suffered disappointment today going down 1-6 6-7(5) after serving for the second set at 5-2

Mel and Bally thwarted by the weather

....over to Eastbourne, then!

All 3 went down today with Bally coming closest to the win against the 5th seed and world #31 picking up the first set 7-6(1) before losing the next two 3-6 and, agonisingly, 6-7(3)

Mel was up against the top seed and world #16, losing 3&1, whilst Naomi C was unable to reproduce her heroics of yesterday going down 4&2 to Voegele who was runner-up in Nottingham last week