Amazing day for David Lloyd Teesside Girls winning team!
It was a truly inspiring day for the girls who had won the North East 14 & Under Girls League 2011-2012.
The North East Girls’ League was launched in 2010 thanks in part to a donation from the Marjorie Dove Fund and support from the Wimbledon Junior Tennis Initiative.
Esme, Ella, Jess, Samantha and Victoria belonged to the winning team and were awestruck even outside the gates. It literally cannot get any bigger than Wimbledon and the first thing the girls did was to watch court 14 to see Tim Henman and Dan Bloxham (Head Coach of the Wimbledon Junior Tennis Initiative) coach some young players. Whilst we were there we bumped into one of the worlds greatest tennis coaches, Nick Bollettieri who has coached the likes of Sharapova, Agassi, Pierce, Seles. Nick was great and signed autographs and you can see the photos in the gallery of himself and the girls!
The girls then stood and watched Tim on court. It was unbelievable that out of all the crowd he came and played pat-a-cake with Samantha and Victoria and they each received a Wimbledon tennis ball, which he duly signed for them. He then signed more autographs and was off to commentate for the rest of the day! Jo then took the youngsters and parents to see where the practice courts are so we are sure the girls saw many more famous faces and tennis for the rest of the day. Each of the girls will be providing their highlights and we will publish them here ASAP.
JoJo Booth, Samantha Reed and Anna Dunne also played on the team but unfortunately could not attend the day out. JoJo and Samantha were competing at Eton which will have been another awesome experience!