TAYSIDE MINI TOUR GRAND PRIX

Following 6 months of competition with 21 Red, 18 Orange and 17 Green events at numerous clubs in Tayside 49 players qualified and took part in the Grand Prix events for their age groups on Saturday at Strathallan School.  There were so many U7s participating that they had their own Red event!  Results were as follows:

U7s: winner Rory McLaren – Kinnoull; runner-up Ben Morrison – Kinnoull

U8s: winner Ben Wilson – WEST; runner-up Abbi Woodward – Crieff

U9 girls: winner Alexa Manganiello – Kinnoull; runner-up Nicola McArthur – Kinnoull

U9 boys: winner Calum Westbrook – Crieff; runner-up Finn Mitchell – Perth

U10 girls: winner Jenny McGuire – Kinnoull; runner-up Kirsty Hunter – Broughty Ferry

U10 boys: winner Lewis Hall – Blairgowrie; runner-up James Mackinlay – EAST

Jane Morrison said that the Mini Tour has been a huge success with hundreds of matches being played over the last 6 months.  Loads of very young players have really enjoyed competing and have really developed through doing so.  Their attitude and love of the game has been brilliant to see.  Very many thanks to Contract Scotland who sponsored the event.

[Photographs are posted on the frontpage]

On Thursday, 10th June, 108 P4s took part in a Mini Tennis Festival at Kinnoull tennis club. This was the culmination of a 5 week block of coaching at various schools in Perth. 9 teams of 12 participated from 9.30-1.30 with 48 children playing at any one time on the 24 courts which had been set up! Kinnoull were the winners with Craigie second. All children received a free voucher for a taster session and 12 children, who had never played before, will be offered a free 5 week block of coaching.  It was great fun!  See the pictures come round on the front page photo gallery.

Click here for full schedule of  events, mostly for U10, U9, and U8, but also some for older juniors.

Club Vision funding in its old form has been  put on hold due to changes in funding management at Tennis Scotland and the LTA.  Unfortunately this means that recently received applications will not be processed according to the old criteria, and may in fact fall out-with the new framework. However, most Clubs will benefit in 2010-2011 from new affiliation requirements.

It is expected that 2009-2010 will be the last year where affiliation fees are based on membership numbers.   It is expected that as from 2010-2011 affiliation will be based on the number of courts that a Club has.   According to our calculations this will significantly benefit most Clubs in the District.  Tennis Scotland expect the savings to be ploughed back into the type of development activities formerly funded through Club Vision.

INTER-DISTICT REPORT 2010: U15Ss& U17s

TEAM:

U17

WILLIAM LYBURN (KIN)                 SHONA GRAHAM (KIN)

RUAIRIDH WATSON (KIN)               ROBYN GRAHAM (KIN)

U15

RUSSELL GRAHAM (KIN)                 JESSICA ALEXANDER

OLIVER COCRIS (ST. AND)               ERIN O’KANE (CRIEFF)

This year the Inter-District was held at Strathallan school since the Kilgraston courts are being renewed. The format was different in that, instead of having 2 round-robin groups of 4, it was a compass draw. This meant that if you lost your 1^st round tie then the best you could come would be 5^th. We had a call off on the Thursday from our no 1 U17 boy so Ruairidh Watson stepped in – a relatively inexperienced tournament player and only rated 9.2. We were drawn to play Ayrshire in the 1^st round and were concerned as their boys were all strong. However the girls were extremely weak and all our girls won very comfortably with the loss of 2 games in 12 sets with Shona Graham winning a ‘golden set’ i.e. not losing a single point! Russell and Oliver were beaten in both their singles and dbls by 2 very strong players. William and Ruairidh came back from a set down in the dbls to win the deciding tie-break 10-8! They then both went on to play very well in their sgls to win well. Match 1 over and 9-3 to Tayside!

Thanks goodness we were then playing for a top 4 place but our next opponents were to be the mighty West! However first we had the quiz which unbelievably we won for a second year in a row!

Day 2 dawned bright and sunny. We were all up for the day ahead with an excellent team spirit. Erin lost to a strong West girl but meanwhile Ruairidh Watson showed true quality coming from 5-2 down to win 7-5, 6-3 against Cameron Mackie – rating 7.2! William was equally fired up and had a great win against Cameron Nicol, also a 7.2, whilst Jessica was outplayed by Emily Lauder. 2-2.

Having been beaten on day 1 Russell and Oliver were determined to do their bit and both won comfortably. Robyn had a difficult match against Jennifer Steele which she lost whilst Shonaeasily beat JotiePurba 6-1,6-1. 5-3 to Tayside.

William and Ruairidh lost a tight dbls in the 3^rd set tie-break 10-8 with Nicol producing some excellent serves on crucial points. Erin and Jess were soundly beaten so it was very tight going into the last round of dbls. Shona and Robyn dug deep to win 3 and 4 with lots of closely contested rallies. Russell and Oliver played great doubles to win 3 and 2 – a brilliant result 7-5 to Tayside and we were in the final for the second year in a row. Awaiting us – the current holders East who had a very strong team on paper.

Unbelievably it was the 3^rd sunny day in a row! We were all in ebullient mood which was reflected in the fact that some of the West and Highland girls insisted on wearing Tayside hoodies too – everyone wants to play for Tayside! Down to business and first match Oliver Cocris v Donald Menzies. Having won the 1^st set comfortably he sadly went off the boil and lost 10-6 in the 3^rd. Meanwhile Robyn came from 6-0, 2-0 down to beat Eleanor Good 10-4 in the 3^rd – a crucial result especially since Eleanor had beaten Robyn in the final last year. Next came Russell and Shona. Russell played almost flawless tennis to beat the strong Reuben Henry 0 and 4! Meanwhile sister Shona was in erratic mood and had us all biting our nails when she lost the 1^st set. She had been my banker for the singles! Showing great spirit she battled back and won the 3^rd set tie-break 10-7. 3-1 Tayside but we knew we had some very tough singles to come. Erin was nervous since she knew her match was crucial but she did magnificently winning 3 and 0. Ruairidh had a very daunting task in playing Andrew Melrose, a very experienced giant in comparison to Ruairidh. This for me was the match of the tournament since Ruairidh played out of his skin and I was absolutely staggered by his play. He won the first set 6-4 showing great coolness on crucial points as well as great skill. He was leading the second set 5-4 but sadly had some very tight calls go against him and lost it 7-5. In the tie-break Andrew served some huge points and Ruairidh lost it 10-6. Despite losing this was a quite magnificent performance and had at least won us back the set that Shona had lost. William and Jess were both soundly beaten by their strong opponents. Score after the singles 4-4 and equal on sets!

The atmosphere by this stage was electric and we knew it would be very tight.  Shona and Robyn  went 1 set down but battled back magnificently to win in the 3^rd set tie-break 10-2 – a moral victory! Meanwhile Russell and Oliver played extremely well to win 2 and 3. We only needed 1 more victory. It looked bleak when the younger girls went 1 set down. However in true Tayside style they fought back and took it to a tie-break which they won 10-6. The 17 boys had just lost a tight 1^st set but it didn’t matter, we had won!

At the start of the event I didn’t have too high expectations but the players were quite magnificent in their spirit and determination. We were all especially thrilled for Shona that we had won since this was her last Inter-District and she has represented us magnificently over the years. Indeed she was our only player to win all her matches this time and a golden set too – what a way to finish!

Jane Morrison