page revision date : 28th December 2008
Tennis under 12s scoop junior team award
An aspiring and talented bunch of young tennis players scooped the ‘Junior (Under 16) Team Achievement’ section at the Sport Pembrokeshire Awards evening as reward for the way that they are catching the eye ‘up the line’ and beginning to claim national awards.
Pembrokeshire has had excellent players in the past but tended to be a special individual here or there, whereas this is the first time that such a large squad has progressed together though the red, orange and green mini-tennis categories to ALL reach national competitive standards of play.
Pushing each other hard
As a result, they push each other and train as a team, with emphasis during the winter months on developing skills as much as possible, and with competition aplenty at other times so they improve their individual rankings as they push each other through encouragement and regular matches.
As their nomination said, “This county squad of selected under 12 players, comprising five girls and ten boys, is progressing from mini tennis to yellow ball junior tennis. They train together every week, 12 months of the year and are now competing in national tournaments with remarkable success.”
Individual successes
That fact is exemplified by Matthew Brady playing superbly well to achieve first place in the Welsh Boys under 12 event, with more success as Tom Beazley played beautifully as he came first in the Under 11 Boys and Rhys Jenkins was a creditable fifth in the same section.
There was further success for the Brady family as Catrin looked really sharp to win the Girls Under 11s, whilst twins Samuel and Lewys Thomas were in top form as they finished first and third respectively on the Under Ten Mini Green South Wales circuit.
The group meet every Tuesday evening at the Dome in Haverfordwest and the next stage for the group is to look for a ranking at UK as well as Welsh levels, with Matthew Brady and Daniel Cole having already won their first tournaments at under 14 level to show the way forward.
Coach endeavour and parental commitment
They are coached by John Royles and John Deason, who are both to praise the parental contribution to the youngsters’ success because they are committed to ferrying their children to competitions, as well as training sessions, because they can journey as far as Newport and even to Wrexham, North Wales. What is doubly pleasing is the fact that most of this talented squad have another year at this level since they are already playing up from their own age category and they are definitely making a considerable mark in national competitions. They are certainly flying the Pembrokeshire Flag with distinction within Tennis Wales, punching well above their weight from our small county.
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