Wortham Tennis Club, nominated in the Club category at the recent Suffolk LTA Awards evening, showed their charitable side recently in staging their inaugural Breast Care Cancer Tournament, which raised lots of money for the charity. Entitled “The Pink One”, 24 ladies dressed in pink played in a “Mexican” style tennis tournament, where the emphasis was very much on enjoyment and fund raising. Event organiser Debbie Seeley put on an excellent day for the band of enthusiastic competitors, arranging a “pink” themed lunch, with some fantastic raffle prizes donated by Debenhams, Leisure Sport Diss, the famous Wortham Tea Shop and club members.
With the persistent rain we have endured lately, it was thought that dodging the showers was going to be the name of the game, but with only one minor hailstorm hitting the courts, the event went off exceedingly well, Joanna Heal eventually taking home the Pink Prize Hamper full of fantastic goodies as the overall winner. With committee members variously dressed in bright pink wigs, a tutu, and even a Norwich City scarf, great fun was had by all, with around a superb £500-00 raised for Breast Cancer Care UK, so well done Wortham Tennis Club for organising such a fun event for members, and showing the charitable side of the game.
If you are a tennis player who’d like to participate in this type of event, you need look no further than Felixstowe Lawn Tennis Club next Saturday afternoon, May 19th. Felixstowe will be staging a “Ladies Fun American Tournament “ in aid of Breakthrough Breast Cancer.
For just £5-00, with every fiver so valuable to the charity, players will enjoy some fun tennis together with afternoon tea and the opportunity to win raffle prizes. For further information or to sign up please contact Nicki on 07899971858 (nnrrtt@hotmail.com) or Lysette on 07889972214. So come on ladies, please support this very worthwhile charity event.
Last weekend saw our 14 and Under Boys’ and Girls’ team competing in the nationwide Aegon Junior Inter-County Cup, the Girls having a tough tournament and the Boys coming 4th in their group following an abandonment in Oxford on the final day. Our youngsters were also participating in the Lionel Cox Tournament at Queenswood School, the host county finishing as the overall winners. Our highly talented 10U Girls’ team confirmed their ability by winning their age-group, with Suffolk finishing a creditable 4th overall out of 8 counties.
Many of these talented youngsters will be representing their schools’ over the next few months, and the Suffolk Schools’ competition programme is as comprehensive as ever. Aegon Division 1 and 2 team events are running for both boys and girls at 13U and 15U age-levels, there is a Premier League event for Girls and Boys 11 Under, and mini red, orange and green events are also underway. The Aegon Team Finals are scheduled for the end of June as usual, and the Ella Wood competition, if run, will be held this month at the David Lloyd Centre.
Gill Fewkes ran a Winter Singles League as usual, giving the keener players the opportunity to keep playing competitively, with the following results :-
SENIOR BOYS: Neill Willemson (Ipswich School)
Highly Commended: Nick Soper ( St.Benedict’s, Bury St Edmunds)
JUNIOR BOYS: William Rudolph (Ipswich School)
GIRLS: Olivia Hine (St.Joseph’s College, Ipswich)
PRIZE FOR SUBMITTING RESULTS: Anna Paton ( Combs Middle, Stowmarket)
Finally, a plea for information for my weekly column, please, which aims to give a comprehensive coverage of the myriad of tennis activities being staged in Suffolk over the Summer. It is important that we publicise the many achievements that are being achieved, especially in a year that sees the Olympic tennis event at Wimbledon, so please either contact the County Office (01473-251144) or Peter Mornard (01473-274146) or e-mail peter at : petermornard@aol.com. Let’s be hearing from you soon !