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Team Flybe players Louis Davey (Bude plays at Tarka Tennis Centre), Emily Syms (Teignmouth and Exeter), Taylor Ingham-Hill (Teignmouth and Exeter) and Matthew Rutter (Exeter) plus special guests Amelia Bissett (TeamBath) and Hannah Smith (Portsmouth) formed a south west team to compete at the national tour event in Sheffield captained by Hannah Miller from Performance Club Tarka Tennis Centre.
Flybe flew the team into Manchester and a scenic drive took them across the Peak District to Sheffield. It was an early start on Wednesday for the 10 & Under players who had a warm up training session at 7.30am ready for matches at 8.30am. Emily, Louis, Taylor and started the day in good form, competing well in some tough matches. Unfortunately poor weather interrupted play but the keen juniors took the opportunity for another training session to keep their eye in.
Delayed 10 & Under matches and the start of the 9 & Under event made Thursday a very busy day with all players trying to make it through to the final day. Matthew Rutter narrowly missed out with some great performances, Louis Davey started his 10 & Under event well, suffered a defeat and despite playing a great third match, he too missed qualification. However he then went on to compete in the 9 & Under event in the afternoon in which he stormed through his box. Emily gained a win but unfortunately missed out in a 3 set match losing in a tiebreak. Taylor started the second day playing well with a great performance but missed out qualification, victim of the reduced qualification numbers caused by shortening the event because of the weather delay.
The final day saw Louis Davey, Amelia Bissett and Hannah Smith compete for the titles. Louis Davey fought his way through to the final by winning two 3 set matches, determinately chasing his grade 2 win. However his opponent in the final battled hard and with yet another 3 set match, Louis just missed out and finished runner up.
Amelia finished as consolation runner up, playing a great match with Trojan-like tennis. Hannah Smith finished 5th in the 9 & Under girls event.
It was an exciting end to the trip when heavy traffic meant the team almost didn’t make it to the airport in time for their return Flybe flight and was close to having to running through the boarding gates! It was a great trip with captain Millsy and good overall results from the team.