Due to the illness of John Schofield, the 2015 Mini and tennis events for the Hearing Impaired children was initially in danger of being cancelled. However, due to Paul Davies, a teacher at Sunnyside School, who volunteered to run the mini tennis tournament, assisted by Anne Clayton, who then went on to run the tennis event, both events were once again enjoyed by over 100 children from 15 different schools across the North East.
The picture above shows the winners and runners up, plus other competitors in the mini tennis competition, played at Tennis World on 24th March. After a series of round robin groups followed by semi-final knockout the eventual winners were:
Girls 10 & U Amy Allen-Mulroy (Sunnyside, Mbro) bt Billie-Jayne Smith (Sunnyside)
Boys 10 & U James Webb (Sunnyside) bt Daniel Carney (Durham Gilesgate)
Girls 15 & U Chloe Ward (Durham Gilesgate) bt Lauren Matthews (Glendene College)
Boys 15 & U Jay Hauxwell (Easington) bt Richard Cowley (Glendene College)
Special Endeavour trophies were also awarded to Tanya Mangor (Sunnyside), Jay Hauxwell (Easington) and Joshua Baker (Durham Gilesgate) for effort and attitude.
A month later, April 28th saw more than 60 children from Bradford, Durham, Sunderland, Castleford, Boston Spa, and Middlesbrough take part in the tennis event
After 11 round robin group matches followed by semi-final knockout matches, the eventual winners were:
Girls 12 & U Katie Durham (Kings Academy, Mbro) bt Ellie James (Sandhill View) 7-5,6-7.7-6
Boys 12 & U Macauley Lee McIntyre (St Johns) bt Tyler Lee McIntyre (St Johns) 7-2,7-5
Girls 15 & U Olviya Sylvari (Kings Academy) bt Rebecca Simpson (St Johns) 5-7,7-6,7-1
Boys 15 & U Robert Benak (Kings Academy) bt Marcus Douglas (Hanson Academy) 4-7,7-5,7-6
My sincere thanks to Paul Davies and Anne Clayton for ensuring these events, now in their 23rd year were able to successfully continue. Thanks also to Tennis World for their hospitality.
John Schofield.