Wednesday 1st July saw the prestigious Tony Blair Sports Foundation (TBSF) Year 3 Challenge Cup County Final at Churchill Community College.
Four schools from across Northumberland had qualified through to the county final including, Hareside Primary School along with Sele, Darras Hall and Bedlington Station First Schools.
The event welcomed Tennis Leaders from St Benet Biscop RC High School (Bedlington) for the 3rd year running and Churchill Community College volunteers also helped for the first time. James Parkin and Bayley Cartmell also helped Pippa Hawes, who is the Northumberland TBSF Tennis Coordinator. James helped with the tennis challenges and Bayley was a court supervisor. Both youngsters currently play tennis locally and are aiming to gain invaluable experience for their respective career pathways.
The North Tyneside based venue includes four indoor tennis courts, which was a lot cooler than outside, which was a great relief to all the players. The boys completed the challenges first, using the Tennis Factory supported by the Tennis Foundation. The stations include rally rebound, mini micro net, can knock down and volley ladder. All points scored went towards the team’s final scores, with the ultimate aim of clinching a place at the Regional Finals in Sunderland on 10th July.
The girls played their matches whilst the boys completed the challenges. Matches were first to 7points. The standard of play was very high and everyone thoroughly enjoyed themselves.
Following a quick bite of lunch the boys and girls reversed their respective activities. The girls were determined to get as many points as possible on the Tennis Factory with the boys imagining hitting balls like their hero’s at Wimbledon!
All scores were completed just before 1pm and the final scores revealed in the presentation. There were a couple of outstanding performances on the challenges, with the girls team from Darras Hall achieving 198 score on the rebound net and Hareside boys reaching 149 hits and Sele boys a very close 148!
The matches were close, with numerous 7-6 scores and all matches hard fought.
In the end, the results were as follows, 4th place Bedlington Station with 46 points, 3rd place Hareside with 68 points, 2nd place Sele with 95 points, and 1st place Darras Hall, with 143 points.
So congratulations to Darras Hall and Sele schools who will represent Northumberland at the Regional Finals.
Pippa Hawes highlighted,
“The Northumberland TBSF Final once again saw an arena filled with smiles, enthusiasm and desire to do their best. It is great to have Wimbledon on at the moment because the youngsters really are inspired further by watching SW19! Best of luck to Darras Hall in the Regional Final!”