County Durham School Games saw 68 competitors in 2 age categories compete for their respective titles!
5 Secondary Schools namely, Consett, Roseberry, Durham Johnston, Greenfield and Seaham qualified through into the finals from earlier rounds. It was amazing that 60 matches took place and the results were nail biting! There was a total of 4 tiebreak shootouts to decide 4 of the fixtures and considering there were 10 fixtures proved how close the competition had been. There were 3 teams tied with the same amount of wins for 2nd place so percentages had to be calculated!
Throughout the day all of the players did not show any sign of giving up for shots, which was brilliant seeing as it was continuous play for 4 hours!
The final results were,
1st - Durham Johnston
2nd - Consett
3rd - Roseberry
4th - Seaham
5th - Greenfield
Jo who helped run the event with Andy Burn was so pleased with the days play,
"What really impressed me today was the fighting spirit displayed by all the players along with how helpful they all were. When matches were on the other team mates and teachers kept coming up to ask if they could umpire, which was really great! These are some of the things that sport brings...sense of leadership, responsibility, enjoyment and getting involved! If they continue in other areas of life like they did yesterday they are going to go far!"
There was also the Year 3 competition played on the hockey pitch across the venue. It was a spectacular sight to see the groundsman from Durham Univeristy had marked out the courts prior to the competition that turned the hockey pitch into the tennis arena! Lucy Scott (Head Coach from the Uni) and Abi Rodwell (LTA) ran the event and were impressed by the standard of play which was also commented on by some of the many spectators and VIP's who were walking around the School Games event. One said,
"I cannot believe the standard of some of these year 3 children. Incredible!"
We must say a huge thanks to Norah Loftus and the County Durham Sport team who led the competition and all of the County Durham School Game Organisers who have put in countless amount of hours driving the games at a local level.
The final results for the year 3 competition were,
1st - Barnard Castle
2nd - St Margaret's
3rd - Woodlea
4th - Hardwick
5th - Easington
6th - Escomb
County Durham is 1 of 46 county festivals taking place across the country over the summer.
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.”
The School Games was created to encourage young people to play more competitive sport in school as part of plans to leave a lasting legacy from the London 2012 Olympics.
Young people taking part in the School Games will have the chance to compete in a range of Olympic and Paralympic sports with competitions progressing from school up to national levels.
For more information on the Tennis Foundation’s support for primary, special and secondary schools please visit schools tennis.