Double whammy of tennis sizzled in County Durham at Sainsbury's School Games event!
The finals of the county wide Sainsbury's School Games competition saw a year 3 schools competition along with a disability event. This included 3 schools in the mini tennis and 4 competing in the inclusive.
The year 3's played singles matches before lunch and then had a special treat by playing doubles in the afternoon along with some fun games to finish off. Schools who were playing included,
St Mary Magdelan's
Cestria
St John's C of E
Across on the second tennis arena were 4 groups in the inclusive event including,
Villa Real Secondary School (4 students)
Greenfield School (2 students)
Belmont Community School (7 students)
Durham Trinity School & Sports College (15 students)
What a spectacular showcase it was of all the great things tennis can offer. The year 3's were full of enthusiasm and were clearly inspired by Andy Murray's performance at this year's Wimbledon battling for every point and were courageous in their quest to highlight their tennis skills to the organisers Lucy and Andy!
The inclusive event was equally as jawdropping with 4 groups rotating round the different activities over the 3 hours. This saw a rally challenge court ran by Northumbria University graduate Abi Rodwell. Then there was a matchplay court, which was exceptionally delivered by Gareth Haley who is the local Tennis Activator in County Durham. For the actual competition Jo and Christine ran the Tennis Factory and Skills Challenge courts. We welcomed the 2 Durham Trinity Schools before lunch and wow it was amazing! The Tennis Factory saw the youngsters rotate round the rally rebound, can knock down, mini micro net and volley ladder. After 40 minutes the 2 schools swaped over and did the skills challenge. Here they completed the egg and spoon, throw into bucket, hit into bucket, popcorn / pass the parcel and skittle knock down. Every single person did fantastically well and were clearly buzzing with every can knocked down, rally score and throw into the bucket.
Villa Real / Greenfield and Belmont were put through their paces on the rally challenge and matchplay courts. Wendy Glasper and Rosie Pybus who were helping out highlighted the success and achievement that Villa / Greenfield along with Belmont showed,
"They all did amazingly well and the volunteers were unbelievable. So enthusiastic and inspiring for the young people."
The final results are below,
Inclusive Event
1st - Durham Belmont (29 points)
2nd - Durham Trinity Year 5 (20 points)
3rd - Durham Trinity Year 6 (17 points)
4th - Derwentside / Sedgefield (14 points)
Year 3
1st - St Mary Magdelan's (26 points)
2nd - Cestria (18 points)
3rd - St Johns C of E (4 points)
Special thanks to go to County Durham Sport for heading up the event along with all the sponsors and supporters.
There are 46 county festivals taking place across the country over the summer and more than 25,000 primary school pupils are taking part in the schools tennis competitions.
Paul Williams, Schools Tennis Manager at the Tennis Foundation added: “School Games Festivals provide a great opportunity for school pupils to pick up a racket, many for the first time, and supports British tennis’ mission of getting more people playing tennis, more often.
“With more than 16,300 schools supported through the Aegon Schools Tennis programme with free teacher training, resources and equipment and 50,000 primary and secondary school pupils playing in schools tennis competitions every year there’s never been a better time to get involved.”
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 www.schoolstennis.org