Hello everyone and I hope you’re having a great summer of tennis and padel – playing, watching or perhaps both – and what a summer it is proving to be!
It seems incredible that Wimbledon has already been and gone yet there’s so much to celebrate and still so much to look forward to. Yorkshire’s 9&U girls, together with our boys teams at 11&U and 10&U, have been crowned County Cup champions, while the women’s and men’s teams both won promotion at the end of County Week. This weekend and next, it’s the turn of the O35s teams, competing at Devonshire Park in the women’s and men’s Group 1 and we wish them the best of luck. Similarly, to those competing next week in the national finals of Play Your Way To Wimbledon.
Huge congratulations go to Becky Lee and Gill Kilner from Huddersfield and Anne Meredith from Wakefield, who captained the GB’s 55&O women’s team to win the Maureen Connolly Cup in Rome. Also, to Park Tennis Club in Brighouse, which recently celebrated its centenary, to Isaac Sallu who made his debut at Junior Wimbledon and to Ilkley Lawn Tennis & Squash Club on hosting the fantastic Lexus Ilkley Open, bringing top quality pro tennis to the county.
Our Redmayne Bentley Yorkshire Tennis Day took place at Ilkley on the opening day of the tournament, bringing together volunteers, team captains and coaches, vice presidents, life patrons, club and LTA representatives to celebrate the work of the county’s tennis and padel community in promoting participation and performance at all levels of our sports. A huge thank you to our sponsor Redmayne Bentley for their continuing partnership with us, which plays such a key role in supporting the growth and increasing the accessibility of our sports across Yorkshire.
During the day we screened the series of short films produced by award-winning broadcast journalist Loveena Tandon. Titled ‘Stories of inclusion’, the films highlight the places, people and initiatives – from Courtside Hub Sheffield to Wetherby Padel Club and from Thongsbridge Sports & Fitness to South Yorkshire Visually Impaired Tennis Club and the NIC Yorkshire VI Tennis League – that are opening up the sports of tennis and padel to all sections of our communities.
During the day we screened the series of short films produced by award-winning broadcast journalist Loveena Tandon. Titled ‘Stories of inclusion’, the films highlight the places, people and initiatives – from Courtside Hub Sheffield to Wetherby Padel Club and from Thongsbridge Sports & Fitness to South Yorkshire Visually Impaired Tennis Club and the NIC Yorkshire VI Tennis League – that are opening up the sports of tennis and padel to all sections of our communities.
The first ever Northern Women’s Tennis Day also took place at Ilkley, organised by Alice Robson and the team at Court Craft in partnership with county colleagues from Cheshire, Lancashire, Cumbria, Durham & Cleveland and Northumberland. Featuring special guest speaker Yasmin Clarke, former No1 junior tennis player in Great Britain and now a performance coach and member of the LTA board, the day brought together women working in tennis across the North to forge connections and celebrate their contributions to our sports.
Staying with Ilkley, last week the club also hosted its annual open tournament which saw top quality junior, adult and seniors tennis with over 500 entries and, for the first time, more than 1,000 matches played at the event – a fantastic achievement for a tournament which is a highlight of the tennis calendar in Yorkshire.
Increasing participation is central to the work of Yorkshire Tennis & Padel so I also want to give a shout out to the Yorkshire Open Court initiative being led by Ben Howarth and the team at Ability Tennis. During Wimbledon, Sense Yorkshire and Ability Tennis invited the LTA’s Matt Elkington and our head of operations Lauren Scales to take part in a sensory tennis session for people with physical and learning disabilities, led by coach Brad Stoneham. It was a chance to find out more about work being done through the Open Court initiative, funded by Yorkshire Tennis & Padel, to extend the reach of our sports.
Similarly to “Coach Tee’ Tawona Moyo who brought together pupils from local schools at the Mirfield Schools Tennis Festival in July. Supported by our sponsor Redmayne Bentley, the event has become an annual fixture and is part of Mirfield Tennis Club’s schools outreach programme, helping to bring the sport to young people who might otherwise never have the opportunity to play tennis and identifying young players with county-level potential.
Away from the court, the board of Yorkshire Tennis made the ground-breaking decision to rename the organisation Yorkshire Tennis & Padel, recognising the continuing surge in popularity and growth of the sport of padel in the county. We therefore welcome the new partnership between UK Padel and the LTA to develop and grow the Padel County Cup competition across Britain, reflecting the shared commitment of both organisations to accelerating the sport’s development and increasing its reach. The launch of the newly branded Padel County Cup marks a major milestone in the continued growth of padel in Britain, where the number of players participating in the sport hit 1 million earlier this year.
Behind the scenes, Yorkshire Tennis & Padel is making changes to how we organise, manage and fund our work – with everything we do geared towards getting more people playing, especially in the less well-off parts of our county – and helping our county players to excel and win!
Looking ahead, the NIC Yorkshire County Tennis Championships return to the John Charles Centre for Sport at the end of August. Dave Kitchen will again be presiding as tournament referee, and we’re hoping both the number of entries and the level of play will be even higher than last year at this flagship event for elite players of all ages. A big thank you goes to our sponsor NIC Services Group for their support for both this event, the NIC Yorkshire VI Tennis Doubles League and the NIC Yorkshire County Padel Championships.
Finally, thanks to all our volunteers in the county who give their time and energy so selflessly and make things possible for so many people, every week of the year! I hope you enjoy reading about the amazing work taking place across the county, and we’d love to have your feedback. Contact me, Paul Billington at chair@yorkshiretennisandpadel.org.ok with any ideas or suggestions you may have.