The 10th TBSF Year 3 Challenge Cup Grand Final took place on 14 July at Sunderland Tennis Centre. This was a culmination of around 250 schools from across the North East, whittled down to the final 8 schools competing to be the 2017 champion.
All 8 schools brought 4 girls and 4 boys to compete in a grand total of 224 matches and loads of fun Tennis Factory activities, all of which counted towards their overall score.
The 8 schools who competed were Aklam Whin, Darras Hall, Levendale, Kings Priory, Broadway East, Copeland, Broomley and Acre Rigg. In addition, 24 leaders from 2 different high schools helped to look after the matches and Tennis Factory activities. We would like to say a huge thank you to the leaders, without whom we couldn’t have run the event – they were all superbly knowledgeable and put 100% effort in to what they were doing.
After 4 hours of play, Acklam Whin Primary School from Middlesbrough eventually came out on top for the second year in a row, followed very closely behind by Kings Priory School from Tynemouth.
All of the players played their hearts out, and we saw some fantastic displays of sportsmanship amongst them!
Alongside the Year 3 event, the North East Visually Impaired Tennis Club also hosted a brilliant Visually Impaired competition. The tournament consisted of 5 VI players, playing a singles round robin event, helped by 4 of the high school leaders. Steve Trewick took home gold from the singles event, with David Donnelly in second place.
Massive thanks also to our helpers on the day: Diane Harker, Matthew Tottey, Lauren Salton and Nick Clark (photography). Thanks also to What a Racquet for sponsoring the event and providing from excellent prizes for the players and schools.