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Wimbledon’s over but the Tony Blair Sports Foundation Tennis Challenge Cup Grand Finalists are ready to play

While we’ve all been glued to our TV. screens cheering on our Wimbledon hopefuls, the next generation of British talent have been battling it out across the North East over the last two weeks, in the County Finals of the TBSF Year 3 Mini Tennis Challenge Cup. Emulating the likes of Andy Murray, Laura Robson and Heather Watson, over 2,500 children have played in a series of closely fought matches and challenges and the following eight winning schools will now progress through to the prestigious Grand Final being held at the Sunderland Tennis Centre on Friday 8^th July.

County Durham

St. Patrick’s RCVA Primary School, Dipton

Esh C of E Primary School

Tees Valley

West Park Primary School, Hartlepool

Levendale Primary School, Yarm

Northumberland

Darras Hall First School

Ovingham First School

Tyne & Wear

Fellside Primary School, Whickham

Biddick Primary School

As this popular competition continues now in its 4^th year, more volunteers and trained coaches are needed to ensure all schools who want to take part are equipped to do so.    In partnership with the Lawn Tennis Association the Foundation has recruited and trained students to become Competition Organisers. This LTA course, which is free to all TBSF members, teaches elements and rules of the game of tennis followed by the skills necessary to run quality competitions. It provides a foundation level for anyone keen to volunteer and will hopefully lead on to some of these students gaining Level 1 and 2 coaching qualifications in the future,  encouraging greater participation in schools and clubs across the North East.

Michael Hughes, a student from Framwellgate School in Durham said:

 “28 of us have become members of the Tony Blair Sports Foundation and received training by the LTA.  We learnt how to organise and run the mini red competition and over the past few weeks we have been able to help run the Durham County finals.  We are really excited about working at the Grand Final event this week, the competition from the young children is fierce and we can’t wait to see them play to win the cup.”

Our young volunteers from Washington School