Last Saturday saw the last of the winter series of Mini Tournaments at Writhlington Tennis Centre. This time, it was the turn of thirty of the youngest children, aged 5–8 years – the Mini Red players.
Mandy Stonier, Tournament Organiser, said; "This was the busiest tournament yet for us, with thirty children who all play in our coaching programme. This is a third of our Mini Red players, a fantastic testament to our coaching team for encouraging and motivating the children to love the sport and want to play to improve. A big thank you to our volunteers and staff for scoring the matches all afternoon – without them, these events do not happen.
"We had three tournaments running alongside each other, a 'girls only', a 'beginners' and an 'experienced' tournament. Eight girls entered their own tournament, with Chloe Porter playing for the first time, with some excellent shots and super serving. Susannah
Carruthers, from St Vigor's School, Chilcompton, was the winner, beating Ava Moore in an exciting final, 10–4.
"In the 'less experienced' tournament, the semi-finalists were Freddie Peters, Alfie Lindsay, Sam Prosser and Oliver Hansom. The final was contested between Freddie and Alfie, from Westbury, Wiltshire, with Alfie eventually winning 10–8.
"In the 'top guns' tournament, with some now familiar faces playing, the standard here has improved every tournament. There were lots of close matches and we had moved some of the boys from the less experienced to the 'top guns' for this final tournament. Matthew Harris, Eddie Thorman, Hugh Carruthers and Billy Nash were just a few that moved across. The close semi-finals were between Theo Fletcher and Rupert Tagent and Bruno Lamb and Finley Hunter-Clarke. In the final, it was the turn of Finley, from St Vigor's School, Chilcompton, to win, this time beating Theo 10–6.
"Credit should go to all the other players, with particular mention to Darcy Burton, the Perrott sisters, Naomi
Perryman, Ashley Ward and Henry Purchase."