‘Oakham’s Ana Webber reached the final of the Grade 3 Easton College Christmas Challenge 14U girls event. She progressed through to the semi final where she defeated the second seed 6-0 6-3. In the final she came up against the number 1 seed. In a two and a half hour hard fought match she narrowly lost in a match tie break 10-7.
The Lawn Tennis Association’s Chief Executive Roger Draper presents Oakham’s Ana Webber with her medal for winning the Girls 14 & Under County Tour Leaderboard for Summer 2011.
The Leaderboard is compiled from qualifying tournament results over the six months of the Summer season.
Stamford’s boys have enjoyed a great run of form over the past few months. They are shown with the club’s Performance Coach Ralph Clarke at the club in early November. The older boys enjoy the excellent Performance group held at Wednesdays every Wednesday evening under the watchful eye of Ralph and coach Gennaro Viglione.
From left to right: Charlie James, Felix Beech, Will Bourne and Ralph Clarke. In front: Mini Red William Barker
Stamford boys Will Bourne (on the left) and Felix Beech are shown with their Babolat towels and medals presented to them following their success in the Lincolnshire County Tour Summer Leaderboard.
Will finished runner-up in the 16 and Under event while Felix followed up his success in the Winter Tour Leaderboard 14 and Under by winning the title again over the summer.
The tour leaderboard is run throughout the season and records all the results of qualifying tournaments that the boys have played in.
Coached by R2R coach Ralph Clarke at Stamford Tennis Club, the boys have put in the hard work over the year and are now reaping the rewards.
Fresh from his successful Lincs 8&U tournament where he finished as County Runner-up, Stamford’s Will Barker has hit a hot streak of form. In late October he took part in the Corby Red County Tour mixed singles tournament.
Twelve players entered the competition at Corby so the event began with three groups of four. The first two matches were comfortable victories of 10-1 followed in his third match by a 10-0 whitewash. Will’s next match was a closer fought game with a 10-4 win for William taking him through to the knockout matches.
His first knockout round was a nail-biting close match against Danny from Corby, ending in a win for Will 10-7. Will appeared more relaxed in his following round, winning comfortably, 10-3, against Hugh from Thrapston. In the final, William played against a girl from Corby and won 10-3 to give him his first victory in a singles competition.
Will then headed off to the West Bridgford Red County tour 8&U Singles, Grade 5 tournament in the first weekend of November.
There were 11 boys in the tournament, playing in 2 groups where each boy played 4/5 matches and then the winners of each group played each other in the final to decide the overall winner. After a very nervous start from William he got into his
stride and won his first match 10-0 against a strong opponent. This gave him the confidence to then win his next match 10-5. His following match was against the tournament favourite, Dillon S (a Red 1 rating and with 64 matches already under his belt).
This turned out to be a cracking match, very long rallies and with both players hitting balls accurately around the court to get their opponent moving. Will proved to be the slightly more consistent player and won 10-8, in a very closely fought match. On a high from this momentous win he went on to win 10-1 and 10-2 respectively in his following games.
These good results put William through to the final against Hayden. Will showed great effort and determination along with some good serving and good shot selection to win the match 10-6 and thus his second singles title.
Will’s next event is at Cambridge on the 27th November. Watch this space!
Birthday boy Nathan Strudwick is the second youngest player in the group. He was born in America and now lives in Kettering. Nathan celebrated his 5th birthday on 4th November 2011 - the very day of the photo!
A progressive and colourful future lies in store for a host of young mini red tennis players who embarked on a new indoor series of sessions at the Kettering Conference Centre.
The Friday afternoon switch indoors is part of the latest initiative spawned by the R2R coaching company and Kettering Tennis Club. And it proved an instant winner.
Head coach Peter Lock and Kettering club player Jon Burrows, who joined the team at the end of the summer, currently front the active role at the venue which also gives the enthusiastic youngsters the chance to sport their bright yellow T-shirts outdoors on a Saturday morning.
R2R Tennis also currently run programmes in the county at Oundle, Earls Barton and the rapidly expanding Thrapston club which currently has over 200 members in total, and which will next year stage a series of four junior tournaments in February, March, September and October after a recent successful dip into the water.
When aspiring young tennis players first come along to any of the R2R sessions, they offer an initial first session free of charge at any of the four Northants clubs in question.
R2R director Ralph Clarke oversees operations from nearby Oakham and said: “We currently have 14 or 15 coaches working in close proximity. In addition to the mini tennis courses in Kettering, Jon has now started coaching in the schools.” He added: “We have been delivering tennis coaching and courses in Kettering at mini red, green and orange level since 2008, initially through Peter Harding who has gone on to front successful operations at Thrapston and Oundle.”
Lock said: “We now have an eight-week course at Kettering in the run up to Christmas. “Kettering and Wellingborough areas
will be targeted during the next year with extensive schools’ programmes with links to both Kettering and Earls Barton tennis clubs.” He added: “R2R have also forged strong links with Corby Tennis Centre, the accredited performance centre in the area, who will help to further develop any outstanding young players in club programmes, while the company has become one of the premier coaching providers in the East Midlands at 12 venues across Rutland, Lincolnshire, Northamptonshire and Leicestershire.”
Having become fully established across the East Midlands, it is a far cry from R2R’s humble beginnings in 2006 when Clarke, an ex-professional and Academy coach, was running the Oakham programme. He then teamed up with local coaches,
including Richard Wilson, a local leisure businessman and coach – hence the name ‘R2R Tennis’.
R2R Tennis held the first ever Thrapston Tennis Club Mini Red inter-team event on 9th October 2011. The event was contested
between four R2R clubs, Oakham, Oundle, Stamford and hosts Thrapston.
This gave some of the players a good opportunity to play in some extra matches and a number of other players got the chance to compete in their first ever tournament in a friendly, fun atmosphere.
Each team fielded four players, each player was seeded and put into groups, with each player playing against their opposing number.
The teams (in their seeded order) were:
A) Oakham: Max, Ben, Josh, Eoin
B) Oundle: William, Cameron, Samuel, George
C) Stamford: Katrina, Jessica, William, Harry
D) Thrapston: Hugh, Kieran, Zoe, Josie
Group 1 was fiercely contested. The first round of results saw Thrapston’s Hugh and Stamford’s Katrina both start with victories, 10-5 and 10-7 respectively. The second round saw Katrina win again, this time beating Hugh 10-6 and Oakham’s Max picked up a win against Oundle’s William, also 10-6. The final round saw Stamford win their third match, 10-8 and Thrapston won their last match 10-5.
Group 2 was a tight affair. The opening round saw Stamford’s Jessica beat Oundle’s Cameron 10-7 and Thrapston’s Kieran beat Oakham’s Ben 10-5. The middle round saw Oakham just come out on top against Oundle 11-9, Stamford beat Thrapston
10-8. In the last round Oakham beat Stamford 10-7 and Thrapston claimed the victory over Oundle 10-7 to finish with 3 teams each on 2 victories.
Group 3 started with Oakham’s Josh winning his first ever match 11-9 against Thrapston’s Zoe and Stamford’s William beat Oundle’s Samuel 10-0. The next round saw Stamford win again, this time 10-1 against Thrapston and Oakham beat Oundle 10-7. The final round saw Stamford win again, 10-0 against Oakham and Thrapston beat Oundle 10-6.
Group 4 saw all four players competing in their first ever competition. Oakham’s Eoin beat Thrapston’s Josie 10-7 and
Stamford’s Harry beat Oundle’s George, 10-5. The next round saw Oakham win again, this time against Oundle 10-3 and Stamford beat Thrapston 10-2. The deciding matches saw Stamford come out on top 10-4 and Oundle claimed their first victory, against Thrapston, 10-8.
After the singles fixtures were completed there were a few doubles matches to round off the day.
Stamford’s 1&2 pair beat Oakham’s 1&2 pair
Stamford’s 3&4 pair beat Oakham’s 3&4 pair
Thrapston’s 1&2 pair beat Oundle’s 1&2 pair
Thrapston’s 3&4 pair beat Oundle’s 3&4 pair.
The overall result of the day was as follows.
1st: Stamford – 13 Wins
2nd: Oakham – 7 Wins (scored more singles points)
3rd: Thrapston- 7 Wins
4th: Oundle – 1 Win
Tournament Organiser Pete Harding said it was a great event and good to see so many players competing. He thanked Ralph, Vanessa, Dan and Rob for umpiring the matches and he also thanked all the parents who supported the event, whether on catering or indeed chauffering children to the event. All the children seemed to have had a great time.
Coaches at the Training Day
R2R Tennis held a training day for coaches at Thrapston Tennis Club on 5th September 2011. The focus of the course was ‘Quality Mini Tennis Programmes’ and was presented by Justin Chacksfield, LTA Coach Tutor. The course covered many elements of coaching as related to mini tennis and included both lectures and on-court practical sessions.
Joseph took part in the Northants County Closed on Monday August 29th. The tournament was played at the Kings Park Tennis Centre. With a large entry of 17 players they were divided into groups first and Joseph won all his matches bar one. These results put him through to the quarter-finals. Joseph won his quarter-final 11-9, in a very tight match. His semi was another close affair which Joseph won 10-8.
In the final Joseph found himself up against the one player who had beaten him (10-6) in the group stage. Another tight match followed, Joseph coming out on top this time, 10-8.
In addition to his recent Northants County success, Joseph was also victorious at both the Thrapston and Oundle tournaments this summer.
Joseph’s coach James Muir said ‘I’m very pleased with Joseph’s effort and dedication so far this year.’
Carole with her Hunstanton trophies
Stamford Tennis Club’s Head Coach Carole Wilson had a great week at Hunstanton lawn tennis tournament at the end of August 2011.
Playing in the Senior Veterans events, she won the Ladies Singles, the Ladies Doubles with her Stamford partner, Lorna Holden, and the Mixed Doubles with her Sheffield based partner, Wilf Jessop.
Having pulled off the treble, Carole was also awarded the trophy for the Best Performance through out the tournament. Carole is pictured with the Best Performance trophy on the left, singles cup in the middle and the mixed cup on the right. Not in the picture is the Ladies Doubles shield which is shown with Lorna and Carole in the picture below
Lorna and Carole - with the Ladies Doubles shield
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