Blackwood
Tennis Club Juniors has just completed one of its most successful summer seasons
on record. This would not be possible without the valuable team of people that
put in the many hours of work to get these teams out on the court both during
the winter season and then again for summer.
Thanks
first of all to Paul Nicholas and Eric Lundborg who looked after the
co-ordinating of the winter teams and to the Supervisors who then looked after
the teams in each Division. We again had four teams in the boys competition two
teams in Division 3, a Division 4 and Division 7. One of the Division 3 teams was successful in winning the
premiership. The girls were also again
able to field 3 teams with only one team making the final series but being
eliminated in the first week. It is
already looking like we will field more teams for this winter season which
shows that the club is also starting to strengthen in the winter as well.
The great
summer season started with our usual pre-season practice days and also the
registration days which certainly helped to educate some of the parents as to
what their responsibility would be for the season. After the difficult task of placing all the players into teams we
then had to wait on grading night of SDTA Junior Activities to determine what
Division’s we would be fielding for the summer season. Unfortunately or maybe some might say
fortunate for us we were pushed down where we had two teams nominated for
certain Divisions and hence the reason why we have ended up having two all
Blackwood Finals in the boys Division 3
and Division 7, lets hope the SDTA will learn from this and allow us to stay in
the Division’s we nominate for in the future.
We
started out with 17 boys teams that competed in 13 divisions during the minor
round, 14 teams then competed in the final series with five teams winning
premierships, those being in Divisions 1, 3, 6 ,7 and 9 and runners-up in
Divisions 3, 4, 7, & 10 a fantastic effort. The triumphant Blackwood Division 1 boys team will represent SDTA
in the “Champ of Champs” playoff this coming Sunday 3rd April
against the winning teams from each of the other metropolitan districts and we
wish them every success on this day.
Our girls
also had a great season with 12 teams fielded in 11 divisions and 8 out of the
12 teams making the final series. The
Division 5, 7 and 8 teams were successful in gaining premierships and the
Division 10 teams was runner-up. This
is a great result and again these girls have done themselves and the Club proud
Well Done!!!!!
All our
winning teams and runner-ups will be presented with trophies this Sunday at the
SDTA Junior Activities presentation day and it will be great to see so many
Blackwood players being presented on this day.
A new
award for most improved player during the season was awarded at the successful
Blackwood Tennis Club Junior Tournament held in February. The boys award was presented to Division 3
player Bradley Nicholas. Bradley moved
from Division 7 in the 2003/04 season, and during the current season has played
at No 1 position in the team and has been defeated only once in singles. Hannah Rundle received the girls award,
Hannah is a first year player who played in Division 9 and also only lost one
single for the season. Well done to
these two players.
The
success of so many teams to make it to the finals and then to win eight
premierships is a great reward for the outstanding talent, good sportsmanship
and wonderful community spirit at the Blackwood Tennis Club. This success does not come without the
tireless work of the Co-ordinators. I would firstly like to say thank you to
Robert Hayes and Eric Lundborg for the many hours of work they both put in to
ensure that both the boys and girls teams get onto the courts each week and
have all the necessary support that is required to do so. Thank you also to Paul Nicholas who assists
each week with the selections and again on Saturday with getting the teams off
to their games. Thank you to Peter Broughton who is always around to lend his
helping hand and give the kids the encouragement they deserve during their
games. It must be a great thrill for
many of these players that are coached by Peter knowing that he is around each
week to watch their progress and see their results. To all the parents, carers, family etc who bring the players along
each week and support, supervise and just simply make it possible for their
children to be a part of such a successful club, thank you. Finally I would also like to thank our two
club coaches in Peter Broughton and Malcolm Cameron, unfortunately Malcolm
Cameron will not be continuing on as our Club Coach next season and I would
like to say thank you to Malcolm for the many years he has been involved at
Blackwood and wish him every success in his new career ventures. The Club will be looking to replace Malcolm
with a new coach next season to continue on with Peter.
In
closing I would just like to say that I feel very privileged to be involved
with such a wonderful and successful club as that of the Blackwood Tennis Club
and take this opportunity to encourage anyone that has a child involved with
the Juniors at Blackwood to give them your full support and where possible take
the time to become involved in some small way if you can, lets face it on these
results our future certainly looks very good and will only continue to do so if
we keep striving to make it happen.
Good luck
to our winter teams this year and let’s hope we can just keep going from
strength to strength again in 2005/06.
Kaye
Lewis
See our
Website: www.blackwoodtennis.org.au