After 12 weeks of competitive league action, the top placed team from each of AEGON Team Tennis Premier 12&U-18&U Tier 1 divisions gathered at The National Tennis Centre to compete for the national title at the weekend.
The league season is split in to 4 regions of South West, South East, Midlands and North in what is a regional level Grade 3 competition. Each Tier 1 division winner from the four regions qualified for the Premier 12&U-18&U Finals. The Finals feature 32 teams competing in 8 different events.
CONGRATULATIONS to COOMBE DINGLE TENNIS CLUB who won the Girls 12&U event!! This is an outstanding achievement and well done to:
Claudia Hallworth
Niamh Townsend
Hannah Davies
Hannah Parry
Emily Thomas
Hannah Davies Report below:
The Journey
When we were waiting for the train we played little games to entertain ourselves like the Jaffa cake game; you had to put the cake on your forehead and the aim of the game was to get it into your mouth. To do this you had to move your head and twitch your nose and eyes to move the cake down to your mouth, but if it falls then you have to start again and because it was a hot summers day the chocolate melted on your face. We had chocolate smudged all over our faces.
On the train was Ellie, our coach, Claudia, Niamh, Emily and me. Unfortunately our youngest player Connie could not come because she was on holiday, luckily Hannah Parry stepped in. When we were having such a great time I thought about how and why we had got so far, it was pretty amazing experience for us.
When we got there we warmed up to practice courts ready for tomorrow and when we were hitting Claudia spotted Andy Murray on the balcony so I started shouting his name, I don’t think he heard because he didn’t turn around to look at us! We also saw Laura Robinson and Heather Watson.
Day 1
Loughborough
We always knew Loughborough was going to be a tough nut to crack. After the singles we were even, two wins each. The breakthrough came when Emily and Niamh played their best ever doubles and won it in a match tiebreak 10-3. Then when we came off smiling to give us that support to finish off the day on a high, winning love and three and to celebrate our success we went to a Italian restaurant where they made massive pizza’s.
Day 2
Bolton Arena
We woke up very early to warm up on the practice courts to get ready for the matches ahead. We knew we would have to play out of our skins. At the end of our singles matches we surprisingly found ourselves three to one up. All we had to do was win a doubles match and the trophy was ours. The girls from Bolton were not going to give up without a fight and they went on to win both doubles matches. We were now three all. We now had to face the shootout. Niamh and I had deal with the massive vocal support of Bolton, cheering from ages 11-50. Our support was from our small but dedicated group of mums and dads who had turned out, but we put that aside and battled it out to match point. After a long cross court rally, Bolton made an error which gave Niamh the chance to step in and hit the winning volley. At long last the title was OURS.
For a full review of the AEGON Premier Team Tennis Finals please click here.