A record 122 hearing impaired children competed in the Annual Tournaments, with some 20-30 teacher supporters in attendance. With the Mini tennis indoors the weather wasn’t a problem but on 2nd April, with only two courts guaranteed indoors and with rain falling at 9am, a few anxious hours followed.
On Tuesday 12th March 2019, 61 Hearing Impaired children from 13 schools in the North East descended on David Lloyd Teesside to compete in their 27th annual Mini tennis event. While the Mini tennis is the main point of the day, the real success was the way the children socialised and made friends from other schools, had lots of fun and often showed a new side to their personalities.
Put in to 10 groups and playing round robin matches, it was encouraging to see how the younger children, often completely new to the game, really embraced the situation and showed sheer delight on just winning a point. As a result of the round robin matches, knockout semi-finals followed by four finals resulted in the following:
Girls 8 & Under: Ruby Honour bt Laila Lauder 5-3 5-4 (both Darlington)
Boys 8 & Under: Gejza Kovac (Sunnyside) bt Zed McTiernan (Whinstone) 5-3 5-2
Girls 11 & Under: Farrah Appleby (Sunnyside) bt Florence Cobain (St Margaret’s) 5-3 5-4
Boys 11 & Under: Declan Venis (Sunnyside) bt Jake Joyce (Sunnyside) 5-3 5-4
All of the finalists received individual trophies and medals and the winners received the Annual Shields.
All the children attending received certificates of encouragement for taking part and finally a special award was presented to Edward Devine, who played his round robin matches sat in a chair assisted by a teacher. Despite his disability, his infectious smile and obvious enjoyment of being there and taking part was applauded by all.
My thanks to the Hearing Impaired Service in Middlesbrough/Stockton and Low Incidence Needs Service in Darlington for contacting local schools and ensuring the children have a chance to attend, to the LTA for providing a box full of goodies for the event and also to Matt Elkington, Disability Development Partner, for his support.
On the 2nd April, 62 children arrived from Leeds, Castleford, Durham, Middlesbrough and Stockton. In all, 13 schools were represented with boys and girls with ages ranging from 10 to 16.
By the time play started the rain had virtually disappeared, but it was extremely cold on the outside courts. However, no complaints from the children and nine round robin groups got underway. Despite playing musical chairs with the courts (in, out and in again etc) all group matches finished by lunch time, when packed lunches were consumed and everyone warmed up inside.
Knockout semi-finals followed by four finals finished as follows:
Girls 13 & Under: Grace Llewellyn (Northfield) bt Mehe Isaq (Ian Ramsey) 5-3 5-3
Boys 13 & Under: Jacob Spence (Yarm) bt Adam Lincoln (St Peters) 5-1 5-0
Girls 16 & Under: Chloe Ivison (Outwood,Acklam) bt Tahreema Khatun (Sandhill View) 4-5 5-3 5-2
Boys 16 & Under: Macauley Lee McIntyre (St Johns,Boston) bt Tyler Lee McIntyre 5-0 5-1
My thanks also to Sarah Lowes, who hopefully will in the future take a fuller role in the organising of the event, for her invaluable assistance on both days and and to all the teachers and parents who gave up the warm indoors to umpire the matches in the freezing cold outdoors.
The real success of the two days was highlighted by two of the girls, from different schools, who were seen sat on the floor talking to each other. Nothing extraordinary about that you might think, except both were known to be shy and not very communicative. By talking, they found out that they actually lived a stone's throw apart and didn’t know it. They both now have a friendship which will continue.
This sort of friendship was not the only one forged that day which made it all worthwhile for them, the teachers and parents alike.
HARRY THOMAS MEMORIAL TOURNAMENT 2019
FOR
THE HEARING IMPAIRED