Leading regional airline’s support of regional ‘grass-roots’ tennis reaches exciting Winter Finals.
This weekend Devon and Cornwall’s most talented mini tennis players came together at the South Devon Tennis centre to compete to become Flybe Mini Masters Champion. The Finals are the finale of a circuit of events held at tennis clubs across Devon and Cornwall with the top players of each County being invited to compete.
The Mini Green (10&U) event was won by Exeter University Tennis centre player Tynan Hill who overcame Tarka’s (Barnstaple) Nathan Woo in a hard hitting and close final. Tyan is part of a large tennis playing family many of whom came to support, and he was delighted to play so well.
The Mini Orange (9&U) event was very exciting with some excellent performances from all players. The final was between Tommy Poli (Exmouth) and Sebastian Stanbury-Flood (Exmouth and Exwick) and in a nail biting match Tommy was eventually the winner.
The Red event this season has been fantastic with so many boys and girls taking part. The event was won by Parker Caleshu of Virgin Active, Plymouth and runner up Lucas Urquiza (Chagford and Exeter University). The match was watched by Parker’s coach who said “Parker has matured as a player over the winter and delighted he has achieved this well-deserved win. Great credit to Flybe for creating an event that captures the imagination of players and parents alike and ultimately got players competing”.
The event was refereed by Cornwall’s Sue Eames and presentations made by John Allen MBE and Hilary Webster of Devon and Cornwall LTA. Hilary said “it was such a pleasure to see so many young players enjoying the competition and their behaviour and attitude both on and off court has been exemplary and inline the LTA Fair Play campaign. Devon and Cornwall LTA are so grateful to Flybe for this vital support to grassroots tennis in both counties”.
Georgina Loosemore (LTA Tennis Development Manager) says: “What a fantastic weekend of tennis, it was amazing to see the players playing so well and enjoying doing so. It is so exciting to bring players together from all over the two counties to compete, make new friends and be a part of British Tennis.
Each season the standard of tennis gets better and better and this is a credit to the players and coaches of Devon and Cornwall. Many coaches were present at the finals which further spurred players to perform well. Many thanks to Flybe for their continued support of tennis within the counties, it is enabling so many more children to play and be enthused by the sport”.
In the Mini-Masters Flybe circuit the number of players has grown across the board in both counties approaching 250 players had competed to be part of the Mini Masters Finals a high proportion of these are players are new to the circuit. A special mention must go to Hazel Veron who plays at the Virgin Active Devonshire who in her first season of playing in Mini Master events has qualified into the finals by finishing 3rd in the County Leaderboard. Prior to the event Mr Vernon said, “Hazel has loved the Flybe events, the format and scoring is so simple and all the events have been so well organised regardless of where you are in the County. Getting to the final has paid off all her hard work and she is very excited”.
Mr Lilley says: “We are delighted to have this opportunity to play a key role in giving the region’s budding tennis players the opportunity to further their dreams in becoming a future Wimbledon tennis star. Both the winter and summer Mini Masters’ series have given talented young sportspeople from throughout Devon and Cornwall the opportunity to experience competitive tennis.
“To have helped give junior tennis a higher profile has been a privilege and the popularity of our Mini Masters’ series has resulted in a heartening growth in volume and quality of young players taking up the game.”
The competition has been open to all young tennis players up to the age of 10 years old and heats have been held across 14 regional tennis centres and clubs with the top eight players from each county and age group now set to battle it out in the Mini Masters’ finals.
For more information on the Flybe Mini Masters Winter Tennis Competition visit the LTA website www.lta.org.uk see “players” & “competition”
Georgina Loosmore (LTA Tennis Development Manager)
Contact: Devon LTA devon@lta.org.uk 01752 892664
Cornwall LTA cornwall@lta.org.uk 01637 839136
For further press information, or to arrange an interview, please contact the Flybe press office:
T: 0845 675 0681 E: pressoffice@flybe.com
About Flybe
- Flybe is Europe's largest and most successful regional airline with 203 routes serving 13 countries, operating from a total of 70 departure points, 38 UK and 32 European airports* (on sale for Summer/Winter ’10)
- Flybe is the UK’s Number One Domestic Airline - carrying more UK domestic passengers than any other airline; carrying more domestic passengers at London Gatwick than any other airline and operating over four times more domestic routes than any other airline (CAA statistics – May 09-May ‘10)
- Flybe is the only UK carrier to feature in the prestigious US-published Forbes magazine Top 10 on time arrival list of Global Major Carriers 2009.
- Flybe won both Best Short-Haul Airline and Best Environmental accolades at the 2010 Business Travel Awards. Other recent awards include: Air Transport World’s 2009 Regional Airline of the Year; Aviation Week’s Overhaul & Maintenance (O&M) European Airline MRO of the Year (Flybe’s aircraft maintenance division); the ‘Most Environmentally and Socially Responsible Budget Airline’ Award at The British Travel Awards 2009 for the second year running; and the 2008 Regional Leadership Award at the Global Airline Strategy Awards
- Flybe’s Training Academy in Exeter, costing £11.9 million to construct, is scheduled to open in 2010.
- Flybe launched the aviation industry’s first ever eco labelling scheme in 2007
- Flybe offers the UK’s first low cost customer loyalty scheme open to all passengers Rewards4all
- Flybe signed a landmark franchise Agreement with Loganair, the Scottish regional airline, in January 2008– the first of its kind ever for a low cost carrier
* Flown under the Flybe brand, of which 26 routes, 10 airports and one country are exclusively served by Flybe’s franchise partner, Loganair.