A successful Mini Tennis Festival was held at the Club on Saturday 2nd August.
Over 40 young children aged from 4 – 10 eagerly arrived for the tournament despite the damp drizzly conditions. The rain consequently meant the mini red event (due to be played on hard courts) had to be postponed until the following Saturday (9th August). However our excellent all weather artificial grass courts meant that the mini Orange and mini Green events could go ahead as planned.
Both the mini Orange draw and the mini Green draw were split into round robins giving every player more matches than in a conventional knock out draw.
In the mini Green event both Robert Lankester (Hertfordshire) and Regan Matthews (Mead) won their respective boxes without losing a match to earn their place in the final. The final between the two boys was less of a close contest with both players competing hard but Robert winning comfortably 4-0.
In the Orange round robin draw both Jake Scrimshaw (Ryde Lawn) and Alex Breach (Ventnor) won all their matches to secure a place in the final.
With a large crowd watching and the sun now shining for the finals both Jake and Alex played excellent tennis with Jake coming through the stronger and taking the winning medal in an exciting and very close match.
Entries have now closed for the re-scheduled mini red event which is taking place at 12 noon on Saturday 9th August. The next mini tennis festival at RLTCC takes place in October half term. Entries are invited from both Island and mainland players. Further details can be found under the Tournaments section of the Tennis page on the website.
Robert & Jake, winners of the mini Green and mini Orange events on Saturday 2nd August
Results of the Mini Red Tournament
The Mini Red Tournament was rained off again the following Saturday, but finally got underway on Sunday 10th. Twenty-one eager children aged from 4 years – 8 years entered the event which was played in a round robin format, giving all the youngsters lots of match experience.
The winner and runner up from each of the 4 boxes then qualified to the last 8 knock out phase of the event. In the Semi – finals Jake Scrimshaw beat Dexter Collins 10-6 to book his place in the final and Max Hill knocked out Joe Newnham 10 - 1 to face his Ryde Lawn squad training friend Jake in the final. The courts were set up with umpires, line judges and ball boys. With lots of parents and supporters watching from the grass bank the youngsters experienced a tournament which some of the children described as more like ‘playing at Wimbledon’ than on the Isle of Wight.
The final turned out to be a three set thriller, with Max taking the first set but Jake coming back to level at 1-1 in the second. The third set saw Max rallying more consistently which earned him the winner’s medal.
Max (left) and Jake, winner & runner-up of the Mini Red Tournament
