Events & Tournaments 2008
Team Bath Junior Tennis Festival 2008
10th Annual Tennis Festival Draws Another Large Entry
The 10th annual Team Bath Junior Tennis Festival took place at the Sports Training Village between 26th July and 2nd August 2008.
The Festival has been running since 1999 when 87 boys and 33 girls made up the entire entry-list. Ten years later and the tournament’s popularity has grown significantly with over 250 players taking part this year, entering more than 390 events between them.
As well as a significant number of local and regional players from the eight South West counties, other competitors came in from as far afield as Cheshire, Cumbria, Lancashire, North Wales, Middlesex, Shropshire and Kent to take part and vie for a title in their particular age-group. The event continued its slightly international flavour with a squad of players from Saudi Arabia visiting Bath to combine tennis and tourism.
Separate singles and doubles competitions took place for male and female players aged from 10 and Under to 18 and Under. This meant that the 16 courts at the STV were in non-stop use from 10am to 8pm (and beyond occasionally!) daily. Including “round robin” and knockout events, and with qualifying, main draw and consolation competitions, a total of 504 matches were played throughout the week-long tournament.
In spite of the geographical spread of entrants, most titles went to players from the south west and one to a Team Bath access player. Joe Hill from Coombe Dingle in Bristol paired up with Kasha Nejad, also from Bristol, to take, indeed retain, the boys U14 doubles title. Kasha had also claimed both the U14 and the U16 singles titles eliminating Team Bath player, Mikey Puttick (pictured top right) in the semi final. Another TB player, Tomas Budin (pictured bottom right), fell in the other semi final to a Saudi player who came through qualifying and played a total of 14 matches throughout the tournament!
A full list of winners and runners up can be seen below.
Apart from enjoying the superb facilities at Bath, the University’s tournament is popular with players and parents because of its format. Consolation matches are guaranteed for all 1st match losers and in many cases, players get up to five or six matches per event entered, win or lose. This gives them several opportunities to gain LTA Ratings and national ranking points.
Tennis Development Manager and tournament organiser, Chris Matthews, was particularly pleased with this year’s tournament. “After ten years of Festivals, it’s fantastic to see how popular the tournament has become and how many players now make a bee-line to Bath each summer”. “And we were pleased to have the Saudi Arabian academy back for a third year. They absolutely love Team Bath’s indoor facilities”.
Chris was particularly pleased that the worst of the dreadful weather past them by. “We were very lucky in that respect” he said. “We only had to come off the outside courts once all week, and that was at about 4pm when most of the matches there had been completed. We simply moved them indoors to complete the day’s schedule.”
Chris would like to express his thanks to the other referee, Donna Budd, for her help in what was an exceedingly busy week for them both. Donna had jumped in at late notice when the original person had got himself a “proper” job with the BBC! Thanks are also extended to Kay Gilbert, Graham Budd and Sam Langley for all their invaluable help.
Winners and runners up were as follows:
|
EVENTS |
WINNERS |
RUNNERS UP |
| Boys U10 (Unrated) |
James McCall (Avon) |
Thomas Heydon (S. Wales) |
| Boys U10 (Rated) |
Julius Pope (Cheshire) |
Finlay McLellan (Glos.) |
| Boys U12 Singles |
Oscar Pope (Cheshire) |
Luke Simeone (S. Wales) |
| Boys U14 Singles |
Kasha Nejad (Avon) |
Alwaleed Alsayyah (Saudia Arabia |
| Boys U16 Singles |
Kasha Nejad (Avon) |
Daniel Omnes (Glos.) |
| Boys U18 Singles |
Daniel Pethig (S. Wales) |
Stuart Searle (Kent) |
| Boys U14 Doubles |
Kasha Nejad (Avon) |
Christopher Morrow (Glos) |
| Joseph Hill (Avon) |
Matthew Morrow (Glos) |
|
| Boys U18 Doubles |
Daniel Pethig (S. Wales) |
Tristan Williams (Somerset) |
| Stuart Searle (Kent) |
George Symons (Avon) |
|
| Girls U10 (Unrated) |
Not Played | Not Played |
| Girls U10 (Rated) |
Stephanie Allen (Avon) |
Elsa Pool (Glos.) |
| Girls U12 Singles |
Bethany Eccles (Somerset) |
Laura Sainsbury (Avon) |
| Girls U14 Singles |
Lauren Hill (Dorset) |
Brigit Folland (Avon) |
| Girls U16 Singles |
Nicole Priestman (Somerset) |
Octavia Stead (Avon) |
| Girls U18 Singles |
Zoe Leach (Somerset) |
Marissa Jenkins (S. Wales) |
| Girls U14 Doubles |
Hayley Butland (Somerset) |
Georgina Miles-Hilpern (Avon) |
| Sophie Butland (Somerset) |
Georgina Pool (Avon) |
|
| Girls U18 Doubles |
Not Played | Not Played |
| Not Played | Not Played | |
| U18 Mixed Doubles |
Vicky Scipio (Wilts) |
Jessica Davies (Avon) |
| Daniel Omnes (Glos.) |
Charlie Knight (Avon) |
Click here to view the completed 2008 Junior Tennis Festival
draw sheets updated 03/08/08
Mini Tennis Tournaments
“That has got to be the best mini tennis tournament I’ve witnessed in the south west.” -
Simon Wheatley, LTA Talent Performance Co-ordinator for Avon and Wiltshire
For the fourth consecutive year, a record number of players took part in this year’s Mini Tennis Festival, held at the University of Bath between 27th & 29th May, 2008.
This popular event, tailor-made for players aged between six and 10, has now become a permanent fixture in the tennis calendar within Avon county. It attracted players from as far afield as Devon, Cornwall (Penzance!) and Wales as well as more locally. There was also plenty of representation from BANES and Bristol, and others came from clubs across Gloucestershire, Wiltshire and Somerset. In total, 73 players took part in the three-day tournament.
Close call - Is that in or out?
As always, the MT Festival was held at Team Bath’s indoor centre. University Tennis Manager (and tournament organiser), Chris Matthews, was particularly impressed with the children’s commitment and determination. “In the last 12 months, mini tennis players have come on in leaps and bounds, both technically and competitively”, he said. “I was particularly impressed with how tactically aware many of them are in competition now”
Erica McIntosh, Team Bath’s Mini Tennis Co-ordinator added 
“Team Bath’s tennis programme for this age-group has expanded four-fold since last year’s Festival and several of our players have now started competing. Therefore, it was invaluable experience for them to pit themselves against other players within the region”. “After all, competition is an important part of a player’s tennis development”.
Mini tennis is specially designed to make the sport enjoyable for young children. The University even runs coaching courses for those as young as three years old! Not only is the court shorter and the net lower, the slower red, orange and green balls bounce lower than a traditional ball, thereby allowing children time to play shots just like their idols.
Star of this year’s three-day tournament was undoubtedly nine year old Edward Gardner from Redlands in Bristol. Not only did he win the two doubles titles at Orange and Green (with Katie Swan and Aydin Caglayan respectively), he also took the boys orange singles title.
Just a few of the prizes and prize winners at this year’s
Mini Tennis Festival
Winners and runners up for 2008 were as follows:
|
EVENT |
WINNERS |
RUNNERS UP |
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Mini Tennis Red (Team Event) |
Themis Bower (TeamBath), Ava Graham (TeamBath), James Holden (Esporta, Glos.) and Billy Hatcher (Next Generation, Bristol) |
Sammy Vrabatchev, Charlie Collar, Charlie Shaw-Tracey (all Coombe Dingle, Bristol) and Thomas Biggs (Canford Park, Bristol) |
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Mini Tennis Orange (Girls Singles) |
Katie Swan (David Lloyd, Bristol) |
India Britland (David Lloyd, Bristol) |
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Mini Tennis Orange (Boys Singles) |
Edward Gardner (David Lloyd, Bristol) |
Ben Hatcher (Next Generation, Bristol) |
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Mini Tennis Orange (Doubles Event) |
Katie Swan & Edward Gardner (David Lloyd, Bristol) |
India Britland (David Lloyd, Bristol) & Maria Budin (Downend & Fishpond TC, Bristol) |
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Mini Tennis Green (Girls Singles) |
Stephanie Allen (Clevedon TC) |
Megan Webb (Frampton-on-Severn TC, Glos.) |
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Mini Tennis Green (Boys Singles) |
James McCall, (Coombe Dingle, Bristol) |
Ciaran Newman (Backwell TC) |
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Mini Tennis Green (Doubles Event) |
Aydin Caglayan (Coombe Dingle, Bristol) & Edward Gardner (David Lloyd, Bristol) |
Ben Fisher (Next Generation, Bristol) & James McCall (Coombe Dingle, Bristol) |
The University would like to congratulate all players that took part in this year’s MT Festival. They would also like to thank Avon LTA for their support of the tournament and all coaches that encouraged their mini tennis players to enter.
Some of the “red” and “orange” players that took part in the 2008 Mini Tennis Festival.
For further information about mini tennis courses and/or competitions at Team Bath, please contact Erica McIntosh on 01225 384210 or email her at mn3eem@bath.ac.uk
Barclays BUCS Challenge 2008
Baker Wins 2008 Barclays BUCS Challenge
Katharine Baker (pictured right), a second year student at Bath studying Sports Performance, won the ladies singles title at the 2nd annual Barclays BUCS Challenge held at the STV last weekend (15th-17th Feb.). And in so doing, she retained the title for Bath which former team-mate, Nicola Broadbent, won it in 2007.
Using her baseline game to great effect, she defeated her more highly rated opponent, Claire Ricketts, 6-4, 2-6, 6-3 in the final. Having finished as runner up at the BUCS individual Championships just before Christmas, Ricketts, from Brunel University, was seeded No. 1 and was the favourite to win the Challenge title this year. Both ladies progressed to the final with relative ease but Baker was slightly more consistent in the final. She only dropped a total of eight games from three previous rounds which included a potentially tricky semi final against the No. 3 seed from Exeter University, Krushmi Chheday.
In the men’s event, No. 1 seed, Matt. Leahy, also from Exeter, defeated No. 4 seed and Bath student, Chris Clark (pictured right), 6-3, 6-4 in the final. But it was the two semi finals that were the highlight of this particular event. Leahy defeated No. 3 seed, Tom Williams (Bath) 4-6, 7-6, 6-0 and Clark defeated the No. 2 seed and 2007 finalist, Graeme Hood (Bath), 3-6, 6-2, 7-5. Both matches lasted more than two and a half hours and all four players produce some scintillating rallies which enthralled the few spectators that witnessed them.
For the second year running, Millfield School provided the finalists for the men’s doubles competition, but unlike last year’s pair, Nick Hallchurch and Nicholas Thibeault were unable to lift the title this year. The sixth formers produced some great tennis but were unable to prevent Clark and Hood from lifting the title with a fairly convincing victory, 6/3, 6/2.
In total, over 40 players travelled to take part in an event that has become a permanent part of the tournament calendar.