The top 8 schools across Tees Valley showcased their tennis skills last week at the Tony Blair Sports Foundation Year 3 Tennis Challenge Cup County Final. It was an explosion of skill, fast feet, enthusiasm and smiley faces, with the top 2 schools qualifying to compete at the prestigious TBSF Regional Final in Sunderland next month.
What also continues to make it such a roaring success is the concrete partnership developed between local Schools and Colleges who provide excellent volunteers. Some of these volunteers will be inspired to get more involved in sport and are encouraged to sign up to the Tony Blair Sports Foundation (TBSF) who aim to help fulfil their potential by working with a number of National Governing Bodies including the LTA.
Once again the volunteers ran a quality event through their focus, fun and willingness to be the best that they could be. So special thanks must go to Conyers School who will also be travelling up the A19 to volunteer at the regional event on July 9th.
There were 64 young players in total and with non stop action for 3 hours their energy needed to be at its maximum! Every single player was fantastic and the spectators were proud of their achievements in the matches and on the Tennis Factory.
The boys completed the Tennis Factory to start off with which included Rally Rebound, Can Knockdown, Mini Micro Net and Volley Ladder. The fairground of activity was relentless in its pursuit to win as many team points as possible! Whilst the boys did the skills the girls played in their matches and organiser Diane Harker said,
"The standard of play was brilliant! You can tell that the schools and local clubs have been working hard to enthuse the players to improve their games!"
Following the first round the boys and girls swapped over once again tirelessly hitting cans down and rallying against the net.
The final results are as follows. Both winners will qualify through to the TBSF Regional Final taking place on Wednesday July 9th from 9.30-2pm at Sunderland Tennis Centre. Here they will battle it out between a further 6 teams with the Regional Champions up for grabs!
1st - Lingfield
2nd - Yarm
3rd – Marton Manor
4th - Stranton Academy
5th - Galley Hill
6th – Abbey
7th – Normanby
8th - Whitehouse
We look forward to seeing the youngsters at the Regional Final in 2 weeks time!