The 6th Annual Awards evening was held at The Stadium of Light, Sunderland with nearly 300 players, friends and family present. The evening was compered by Anne Clayton, our LTA councillor. Our guest for the evening was Graeme Clarkson, LTA Facilities Manager North and Scotland. Graeme was formally County Development Officer for Durham & Cleveland and has played for the county at various levels and is also a qualified tutor delivering Level 1 and 2 courses.
The first half of the evening was devoted to presenting trophies to winners of the North East Winter League, Aegon Team Tennis, HSBC Road to Wimbledon and the County championships winners and runners up. Special mention was made to Cheri Darley’s success at the National finals of the HSBC Road to Wimbledon where she won the girls doubles final. Playsport Trophies awarded for continued commitment and endeavour (U14 age group) were awarded this year to Matthew Telford and Cheri Darley and the Oliver Wrightson Award (U18 age group) went to Rory Gaydon and Lois Page.
The prestigious Harry & David Thomas Memorial Meritorious Awards were presented to four club members for many years of service to their club and tennis in general – they were Mark Foster(Tennis World), Pam Robinson (Yarm), Moira Smith (Guisborough) and Graham Fowler (Sunderland TC ). All received a framed certificate and a cheque for £100 to be spent as they wish at their club.
The second half of the evening concentrated on the major awards from nominations submitted by clubs in the county. All nominations were passed to an independent adjudicator outside the County LTA, whose decisions on the awards were based totally on the information submitted on each nomination. The results were as follows:
School/University of the Year: Winner – Durham Johnston School
R/up - University of Sunderland
Team of the year Winner - Tennis World Mens 1st team
R/up - Harlepool Ladies
Development Coach of the Year Winner - Stephanie Eadon
R/up - Diane Harker
Performance Coach of the Year Winner - Libby Fletcher
Young Volunteer of the Year Winner - Dominic Barlow
R/up - Bethany Ellison
Senior Volunteer of the Year Winner - Martin Williams
R/up - Sue Bedford
Senior Club Player of the Year Winner - Richard Love
R/up - Helen Salmon
Club of the Year Winner – Yarm
R/up – Tennis World
Many thanks to Graeme Clarkson for presenting the trophies, Ashleigh Baines for her video presentation and Catherine Tuckwell who stepped in for us at the last minute to take the photos when Nick Clark had to pull out due to illness.