Sidmouth Tennis Club hosted a full weekend of matches for club juniors in the “Road to Wimbledon” tournament, writes Lesley Cranston.

On Saturday an informal event provided competiton at all levels from ‘mini-reds’ (age four to eight) through to young teenagers. This was an informal event with lots going on off court to keep the youngsters entertained, and fed and watered. The day required a lot of organisation by club coach, Sue Wiltshire together with junior co-ordinator, Debbie Snelgrove and the social committee plus helpers in order to make this a fun day and a big success prior to the main event the following day.

Jed Ionov in the younger age group won most matches with Verity Larby winning the prize for best effort.

Sunday saw nine boys and five girls compete in their respective sections in a round robin format with the winners of each going forward to play against other Devon club winners in Exeter next month. Children from 10 to 13 are eligible for this event and were organised into groups so each had at least two matches, best of three sets, the winners of the respective groups playing off to produce a finalist.

In the boys section, James Clarke emerged the winner over Johnny Surtees in a hard-fought final that kept spectators thoroughly engaged.

The girls’ final was a family affair between the Wiltshire sisters which also went to the wire, Mollie just managing to outshine younger sister, Katie 10-7 in the final tie-break.

Well done, everyone who took part, there is some promising talent in evidence amongst our juniors which is heartening to see.

Good luck to Mollie and James in Exeter.

Raffle prizes for 'Road to Wimbledon' event were very generously donated by:

Sports Replublic, The Lantern Shop, Made, Hotchpotch, Sweet Temptations, Forever England, Occasions of Sidmouth, Thorntons, Humbug, Paragon Books, Gliddons, Taste, Costa and White Horse.