Thousands of young athletes from across the country are picking up a racket and playing competitive tennis as part of the School Games Festival this July.
8 teams from across Cheshire were victorious in their local partnership Year 3&4 Mini Tennis Red competition to earn their place in the School Games Finals, held at Birchwood Tennis Complex. In the year 7 / 8 competition 6 teams made I through from qualifying competitions held across the county. Over 600 pupils from all over Cheshire competed in their local events to have a chance to play in the county finals.
There are 46 county festivals taking place across the country over the summer of which tennis is a part of 43 and more than 1,000 young people took part in a variety of sports at the Cheshire School Games Level 3 Festival.
Tennis was one of the highlights of the day with Hartford Primary Scholl emerging as the winners in the year 3 / 4 event beating Westbroke Primary School by just 1 point in the final. Birchwood beat Wilmslow to win the Year 7 / 8 event.
Nicki Harrison, Regional Participation Manager said: “It is fantastic to see so many children involved in this mini tennis competition. It has introduced new children into the game and hopefully they will continue to play at their local tennis club.”
Thank you to the students from the local secondary school that helped with scoring the matches and to David Patterson and Dave Hardman for running a well organised and fun event. Thank you also to all the volunteers without their support the event would not have happened, along with teachers, School Games Organisers, local coaches and their clubs. A big thank you to the Tennis Foundation for providing training, resources and free equipment to schools nationwide.
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 more even schools and young people taking part in the years to come.”
For more information on the Tennis Foundation’s support for primary, special and secondary schools please visit www.schoolstennis.org