Electric Atmosphere at Prestigious Schools Final

The Tony Blair Sports Foundation (TBSF) Year 3 Challenge Cup Grand Final was played at Sunderland Tennis Centre on Friday 10th July.

The final, which coincided with Men’s Semi-Final day at Wimbledon this year, was the culmination of months of competition played between year 3 school pupils. About 250 schools in the North East competed in the event this year, and the finals saw the top 8 battle it out for first place.

The 32 boys and 32 girls fought hard throughout the day, but the best thing to see were all the smiles shining through! They all had a great time, and really competed as teams, working together to do their best. They all had a chance to play individual singles matches, but also work as a team on the Tennis Factory kit, showing their skills in rallying, precision and accuracy.

All in all, 224 singles matches were played and points collected for each school on the Tennis Factory. But there could only be 1 winner! It was hugely close between the top 4 schools, as you can see from the results below!

8^th – Coxhoe Primary School, 51 points

7^th – Shincliffe Primary School, 72 points

6^th – Sele Primary School, 84 points

5^th – Lingfield Primary School, 92 points

4^th – Yarm Primary School, 103 points

3^rd – Benton Dene Primary School, 104 points

2^nd – Cullercoats Primary School, 106 points

1^st – Darras Hall Primary School, 135 points

But the Primary school pupils weren’t the only players competing on Friday! We also had a touchtennis competition between our Secondary school volunteers who have been helping with the qualifying events throughout the year. 24 of them competed in a doubles event of their own, just adding to the special day. Congratulations to Ben and Robert who came first, and Joe and Callum who were runners up.

We also had 9 Visually Impaired tennis players compete in their own singles tournament to top the whole day off.

We must say a huge thank you to all of our volunteers who helped umpire the matches and look after the Tennis Factory on the day – they made the event a huge success, and we couldn’t do it without them! A really massive well done as well to our are leads who didn’t just help on the day, but throughout the year – Diane, Lucy, Pippa, Claire, Laura, Steph and Jo.

Here’s to next year!