More than 20,000 primary school pupils have picked up a racket this summer, to take part in LTA Mini Tennis Schools Competition.
In England, the Year 3&4 LTA Mini Tennis Competition has been part of the School Games, a new programme to motivate and inspire millions of young people across the country to take part in more competitive school sport.
Competition begins locally with events for clusters of schools to compete against each other, with winning teams progressing through to partnership or local authority finals.
Winning teams then progress through to School Games County Festivals, which are one-day, multi-sport events with opening ceremonies and involve more than 1,000 young people competing in a range of sports. Out of the 46 County Festivals, tennis was pleased to be included in 43 of the events – one of the highest represented sports across the board.
One of the biggest events is the London School Games, which took place at Crystal Palace and had 31 out of the 33 London Boroughs represented.
Paul Williams, Schools Tennis Manager at the Tennis Foundation, added: "A key priority for British Tennis is to grow the base of the game and that means more young people playing more often. Congratulations to everyone who participated at the School Games event this year and we look forward to seeing even more schools and young people taking part in the years to come."
At the Coventry, Solihull & Warwickshire event, the winning team, Ulverley Primary School, were lucky enough to be presented with their medals from Olympic Gold medallist, Jason Gardener.
In Wales, it was another successful year of Mini Tennis Schools Competition, with more than 2,600 pupils from 230 schools competing. Find out more about the events in North Wales and the competitions in South Wales.
Further success was seen in Scotland, with a record number of entries seen in the Dunfermeline Mini Tennis Primary Schools Competition.
For the first time, pupils competing in Mini Tennis Schools Competition this year were offered the chance of signing up to free British Tennis Membership and accessing a free Babolat Mini Tennis racket and ball set, to help them carry on playing at home and at their local tennis venue. Pictured at the top of the page are Brettenham Primary School in Enfield playing with their new rackets.
Find out more about Mini Tennis Schools Competition, including local news items, photo gallery and video clips, here.
You can read a transcript of the above video about the London Schools Games here.
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