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Darras Hall First School Slams to Victory

Jeanette Pickard (TBSF)  with the winners Darras Hall First School

Move over Nadal and Williams, there’s new talent coming through!

Sunderland Tennis Centre was the venue of the finals of the Tony Blair Sports Foundation Tennis Challenge Cup that has seen over 8,000 children between the ages of 7 and 8 receive free tennis coaching sessions since the start of the competition in November last year.

2,560 of these children went on to participate in the annual competition which spanned across the North East with 320 schools participating in the 676 matches.

The finals on Friday 9^th July, saw the last eight schools battle it out to win the trophy and 2010 winners title. The schools were:

• Darras Hall First School, Ponteland (winners)
• Mill Hill Primary School, Sunderland
• Priory Primary School, Tynemouth (runners up)
• Shotton Hall Junior School, Durham
• St Bernadette’s RC, Wallsend
• St Mary’s C of E, Berwick
• St Patrick’s RC Primary School, Durham
• Yarm Primary School, Cleveland

 Well done to the winners Darras Hall First School and runners up Priory Primary School, who saw off the extremely tough competition from the other schools through a series of matches. 

Jeanette Pickard (TBSF) and Jane Morland (Northumbrian Water) with the runners up Tynemouth's Priory Primary School

Diane Harker from DLL Teesside and Acklam explains what the young players are achieving from the competition: “The development of the players has been great to see and be a part of. They are now understanding about the tactical elements of the game. For example hitting away from your opponent and attacking the weakness.” Diane explains: “This is a great programme to be involved in, really well organised and I know for a fact the young players are loving it!”

Jeanette Pickard, Chief Executive of the Tony Blair Sports Foundation tells us: “The participation has increased ten fold since we started this annual competition which is a great accomplishment. The programme is reaching out to benefit communities right across the North East and that is thanks to a great partnership between the Foundation the Lawn Tennis Association and school Competition Managers.   Thanks must also go to the number of volunteers who have helped organise and run the competition.  In the past 5 months the Foundation has recruited and trained 28 new Level 1 Tennis coaches and already have 13 members waiting to do their course in September.”

She goes on to thank the support of the sponsors of the competition: “It is also with the help of corporate responsibility programmes which companies participate in that we are able to fund such events. Without the support of our North East Businesses, which includes Northumbrian Water, we wouldn’t be able to host these types of events and the training programmes to get more coaches working in our communities. This is a sustainable CSR programme, benefiting all who are involved with an end result of more children in our region playing more sport. The children have had a fantastic time and a chance to participate in a tournament they may not usually have had access to. We hope that the majority of these young people will go on to play tennis either for fun or more competitively which is a great achievement for us.”

For more information on how you can become involved in the Tony Blair Sports Foundation, whether to become a coach, volunteer or part of the corporate membership scheme, call us on 0191 276 0640.