Scottish Inter District Championships 2017 Report

This year’s Scottish Inter District Championships were played again at Kilgraston School in Perthshire, with nine Districts competing over four days of blue skies and sunshine, in 3 age groups – 12U, 15U and 18U.  Tayside fielded a strong team throughout the age groups, supporting each other on and off the court and creating a very fun atmosphere within the team, bringing the best out of all the players.

Tayside Teams   (Team Captain :  Steve Birrell)

12U                                          15U                                          18U

Ben Hudson                             Christopher Horgan                 Scott Hamilton

Marcus McLaren                     Ruari McLennan                      Cameron Hay

Niamh Grogan                         Alexa Manganiello                   Arietta Manganiello

Lexie Macmillan                      Rosie Morris                             Kirsty Robertson    (with Rebecca Dye filling in on the final day)

The 12U team had a very strong start in their group stage beating Ayrshire 6-0 and Borders 5-1.  This put them into the 1^st / 3^rd place play off.  For their age group the final play offs consisted of a boys doubles and girls doubles against each team.  All three teams finished at 1-1 after both doubles matches resulting in a shootout against each other – a tie break of first to 10 points – to decide each tie.  The Tayside team were extremely close in both shoot-outs but just lost out to West and Central, finishing third.

In the 15U event, Tayside also came second in their group beating Ayrshire and Central 5-1 and losing to East who went on to win the 15U competition.  In the 3^rd / 4^th play off, Tayside came up against West. After some very hard fought matches and multiple match points saved, the Tayside team beat West 4-2, finishing third.

In the 18U event, Tayside came second in their group with very good wins against West and Borders but losing to a very strong North East team, who were the eventual winners of the 18U competition.  Tayside played Central in the 3^rd / 4^th play off and after winning two very close match tie breaks in the doubles, the Tayside 18U team won 4-2 to finish 3^rd.

After a massive effort from the Tayside team, they finished joint second overall with North East winning the title.

Overall final standings:

1^st North East                          23 points

2^nd Tayside                              21 points

2^nd East of Scotland               21 points

4^th Central                               20 points

5^th West of Scotland              19 points

6^th Borders                              11 points

7^th Highlands                            9 points

8^th Ayrshire                               8 points

9^th Dumfries & Galloway        1 point