Schools Tournament Rep... | rayleighlawntennis

2018 Rayleigh Junior Schools Tennis Tournament

The Rayleigh Junior Schools Tennis Tournament is the largest Tennis Tournament in Essex, with hundreds of pupils taking part each year. The tournaments are run by RTA Head Coach, Ryan Wilson and his team of assistants. The tournament is provided free to local schools.

This was the 8th year of the Rayleigh Junior Schools Tennis Tournament. This event gave hundreds of children the opportunity to play tennis and helped discover some local talent.
Over Wimbledon fortnight Rayleigh Lawn Head Coach, Ryan Wilson and his Team of Assistant coaches went into the Rayleigh Junior Schools to run class tournaments for all the Year 3 & 4 pupils. At the weekend all the individual class winners attended the finals of the competition, held at Rayleigh Lawn Tennis Club, Watchfield Lane, Rayleigh.
There were 4 tournaments: year 3 boys, year 4 boys, year 3 girls, year 4 girls. Each Tournament had around 200 children take part, therefore around 800 school children were part of this event.

The Tournament stages in the school were short matches to 4 points with each individual Boy and Girl class winner progressing to the finals, which were held at Rayleigh Lawn Tennis Club on our newly resurface tennis courts, which are the best surface the club has had in its 99 year history.
The tournament finals were all run in tie-break format (first to 7 points). The participants were placed into groups, with the winners and runners up progressing through to the semi finals.

The Girls Finals on Saturday started with the Year 4 Tournament which was won by Yasmin Byron (Grovewood) who beat Niamh Wlliams (Glebe) 7-2 in the final. This was a reverse of last year’s Year 3 tournament where Niamh had beat Yasmine in the final. Amy Colbert (wyburns) and Nicole Fawell (Grovewood) made the semi finals.

The Year 3 Girls Tournament saw Ayurda Saigal (Grovewood) beat Daisy Newcombe (Wyburns) 7-5 in the first semi final. In the opposite half of the draw Layla Rowe (Rayleigh Primary) beat Tilly Hoar (Our Lady of Ransom) 7-2. This set up a final between between the 2 Rayleigh Lawn Players. Ayurda came out on top putting in a great display to win the final 7-1. This capped off a great day for Grovewood who produced the winners of both the girls tournaments.

Sunday saw the Boys finals kick off with the Year 3 Tournament. The final was contested by 2 Rayleigh Lawn players Zach Robinson (Wyburns) and Oscar

Seaman (St Nicholas). Zach had beaten Teddy Basham (Our Lady of Ransom) in the first semi final and Oscar defeated Josh Haase (Grovewood) in a close match 7-5. Zach prevailed in the final winning it 7-1 retaining the Year 3 Trophy for Wyburns who had produced the winner the previous year when Ethan Brunt was victorious.

The finals finished with the Year 4 Boys Tournament. The first semi final was an all Rayleigh Lawn affair, with club players Ellery Pearson (Our Lady of Ransom)and Lewis Cardy (Edward Francis) battling it out for a spot in the final. Lewis won what was an excellent match. In the other half of the draw Freddie Ashworth (Grovewood) defeated schoolmate Ben Flemming (Grovewood). The final was a close encounter and at 6-6 Freddie was only 2 points away from making it 3 out of 4 tournament wins for Grovewood. However Lewis kept his nerve and won the match 8-6 bringing the boys year 4 trophy to Edward Francis.