The Suffolk Girls Under 10 Team performed superbly in the Aegon County Cup at the weekend, competing on home soil at Woodbridge and winning their qualifying group without losing any matches, or indeed, dropping a single set. A highly talented quartet of Isabelle Eaton, Maddie McLoughlin, Justice Hall and Tawana Sewah, all training at the Sports Club with Chris Daynes, were in a class of their own and swept aside the opposition.
Following conclusive 4-0 victories over East Region rivals Bedfordshire, Norfolk, Hertfordshire and Cambridgeshire, they now qualify for the National Finals over the weekend of the 14th/15th June. They will travel to Bolton, where they will take on the other group winners for the national title, and with these young players all in such good form, there is genuine cause for real optimism.
Based in Group D at Woodford Wells, the 10U Boys’ Squad of Adam Rudolph, Joshua Stokes, Joel Sheldon and Josh Bowyer all did the county proud under the watchful eye of coach Ben Roberts-Law, though could not quite equal the performance of the Girls. Competing against the same opposition in Hertfordshire, Bedfordshire, Cambridgeshire and Norfolk, they beat Beds 4-0 and Cambridgeshire 3-1, but lost to Herts in a very close encounter 1-3, and went down to Norfolk on a tie-break shootout, doing very to finish 2nd overall.
Suffolk clearly have an encouraging pool of young players coming through, and the cream of the region met recently at Henley Road in a highly successful Ipswich Sports Club Grade 3 Tournament. Holbrook’s Saul Hindmarch did well to capture the 8U Mixed title, with Harriet Petley capturing the Girls’ 12U crown and Ben Jones emerging as the 16U Boys’ Champion. The other Singles winners were as follows:-
9U BOYS: Oliver Evans (Kent) 9U GIRLS: Grace Tucson (Sussex)
10U BOYS: Thomas Drayton (Middlesex) 10U GIRLS: Hayleigh Hale (Essex)
12U BOYS: Sam Bossem (Dorset) 14U BOYS: Edward Pudney (Essex)
14U GIRLS: Vianne Palffy (Norfolk) 16U GIRLS: Erica Izzat (Essex)
18U BOYS: Lucas Perry (Kent) 18U GIRLS: Maria Andrews (Norfolk)
All these young players were encouraged to take up the game at a very early age, and promotion remains crucial to bringing about the increased participation we are all hoping for, both at local and national level. To this end, the Suffolk LTA Marquee in the Sports Village at the Suffolk Show was a great success, hundreds of young people of all ages flocking in over the two days, despite the dismal weather. Encouraged by a team of enthusiastic coaches, many tried their hand at mini tennis, and the Speedgun proved a highly popular addition this year. Hopefully many will now contact their local club.
On the highly topical theme of participation, encouraging reports continue to arrive of a number of highly successful Open Days over the Great British Tennis Weekend last month. Next week we will look in more detail at the remaining Open Days being staged in June and July, with a number of new clubs laying on free tennis for all the family members to enjoy. It would be good to receive any detail information from club organizers at petermornard@aol.com (01473-274146) both before and after the events.