Tennis: Britain's six appeal

Six British players reached the last 16 of the Manchester Challenger at Didsbury yesterday, with one of them certain to go through to the quarter- finals.

Colin Beecher will be battling for a place in the last eight against Norwich's Tom Spinks, who produced the surprise of the day by beating the sixth seed, Luke Milligan, 7-6, 6-2. Spinks, a 21-year-old outsider who was only in the tournament after being granted a wild card, is over 500 places below Milligan in the world rankings but made a mockery of the form book as he became the first player to oust a seed.

The top seed, Chris Wilkinson of Southampton, went through after a controversial end to his opening match. Wilkinson's opponent, Gabriel Trifu of Romania, lashed out in frustration at a ball when 4-6, 2-4 down and hit a linesman in the chest. The tournament referee, Carl Baldwin, had no hesitation in disqualifying Trifu.