2017, this was the last time Dumfries & Galloway as a district, attended the Scottish Inter-District Team Tennis Championships which is a 4-day residential event taking place this year in Perthshire. So, in 2023 we returned to this event with a 12-player team who were looking to put D&G back on the tennis map. Since 2010, we have sent partial teams in 2014, 2015 and 2017 with all of them finishing in last position out of the 9 districts. These being Ayrshire, Central, Tayside, North East, Highlands, Borders, West and East of Scotland.

So, for this year the message was simple, let try and not finish last or at least put oor wee district in with a chance of at least being involved on the last day.

Each district sends 4 x 12s & under players, 4 x 15s & under and 4 x 18s & under with each team made up of 2 boys and 2 girls. Days 1 and 2 are qualifying matches with 1^st in each of the 3 groups going on to play for the titles, with the 2^nd and 3^rd team playing each other to have a say in the overall winners.

Our 18s were a young team with 3 of the players being 15-year-olds and one 12-year-old and they were drawn against one of the favourites in West of Scotland who won the 18s last year and a strong Ayrshire team. The kids put up a good effort but as expected the young team struggled with the strength of their opponents and last all their matches. This would put them in group 3 for the last 2 days.

Like the 18s our 15s were also a young team with 3 of them being 13 years and one 11-year-old. They also struggled in the opening 2 days as they were drawn against Tayside and the North East. Both these districts have large cities to pick players from with Dundee and Aberdeen respectfully. Again, another good effort against their opponents but ultimately, we would end up in group 3 also for the 15s.

Then we had our 12s, they were drawn against the East of Scotland and Central with both expecting to be challenging for the top spots at the end of the week. Each match would see 2 boys singles, 2 girls singles and a boys and girls doubles. Day one saw the singles matches with D&G winning 2 matches out of 4 in each rubber.  This left us with all to play for in day 2 with the doubles. Both the girls match ended in tight losses with the boys winning both of theirs, this would result in 2 match tie-breaks to 10 with one boy and one girl from each team pairing up for the shoot-out. This was a great achievement with D&G still could end up in any of the three positions. The East were up first as D&G took and early lead and went on to win the shoot-out, this guaranteed then 2^nd place in the group before playing Central. This tie-break was tight after the first 6 points as they turned at 3-3 before D&G started to win more of the battles and eventually took the match 10-7 to secure 1^st spot in this group and a place at the top league. A really great achievement for this little district.

Days 3 and 4 were all about positions. Our 12s were matched up against Tayside and the West of Scotland with both the 18s and 15s playing against the Highlands and Borders. Day 3 was our one wet day so play was slower. Both our boys 12s players won their singles matches against Tayside so this match sat at 2-2 before Thursdays doubles but they struggled against the West going down 4-0. Our 18s completed day three with a 2-2 tie against Highlands and both girls won their singles and 3-1 down against Borders. The 15s played their doubles matches on Wednesday losing both against the Highlands and winning both against the Borders. All to play for on the last day.

Our players entered day 4 with lots of matches that had purpose and a good team spirit. Our 12s battled away with their doubles but it looked like a day to much as they lost all four rubbers to finish 3^rd overall but what a great achievement for them. The 15s started their singles and completed a 6-0 win over their Border opponents. Against the highlands was trickier and we ended up losing that match 5-1 overall. This left the 18s with their doubles, neither doubles pairing could trouble the experienced Borders pairings as we lost that match 5-1. This left us against the Highlands to see who would come 2^nd in the group and 8^th overall. The boys were outmuscled by their older opponents which left it up t the girls. The girls stated slow by going 4-1 down in their first set before clawing it back to win the first set 6-4. Set 2, what a surprise the girls did it again, going 4-1 down before taking that rubber 6-4, 6-4. This left us with a mixed pairs match tie-break. Both started nervously before D&G started to win the rallies and ended up 9-4 in front. They had 5 match points to do this before the Highlands started to chip away at this, 9-5, 9-6, 9-7 before they completed the win 10-7.

A tremendous effort from our little D&G starts as they came 7^th overall.

A big thank you has to go the Holywood Trust for supporting the team as entering this event doesn’t come cheap. Thanks to Tennis Dumfries & Galloway for their contribution, thanks to Dumfries Tennis Club for allowing us to use their facilities for practice this year, thanks to The Print Copy Centre in Dumfries for their efforts in getting our teamwear sorted, thanks to the parents of the kids who supported us both through-out the build up and from a far and at the event in Perthshire. Thank you also to the kids, some of these kids playing well out of their age groups to help the team get there and thanks to both captains, Rebecca Topping and Michael Goldie who supported these 12 kids during these 4 days, coaches, captains and parents all rolled into one for the duration of the event. What an achievement.

Overall standings – Scottish Inter District Team Championship 2023

12s – (Dominik Czopek, Jack Wearing, Lucy Scade & Caitlin Topping)

1^st – West,

2^nd – Tayside,

3^rd – Dumfries & Galloway,

15s – (Cameron Hunter, Nathan Zaoral, Autumn Hodgins & Eilidh Topping)

7^th – Highlands,

8^th – Dumfries & Galloway,

9^th – Borders

18s – (Fergus Reynolds-Lewis, Flynn Dalgliesh, Eve Crombie & Isla McFarlane)

7^th – Borders,

8^th – Dumfries & Galloway,

9^th – Highlands

Our district is looking to return to the Scottish Inter-District Team Championship for the first time since 2017.

This event invites all 9 Scottish districts to attend and it’s for 18s and under, 15s and under and 12s and under players, 2 boys and 2 girls in each team. To give our kids an identity the District has created a new badge to attach to their tennis gear.

The event is scheduled to run in the Easter holiday with the East of Scotland, The Highlands, North East of Scotland, Ayrshire, The Borders, Central Scotland, Tayside, West of Scotland and Dumfries & Galloway.

Good luck to our team when they get there.

Champions

Today, we saw the final round of games for the D&G Mini Red Tour 2022, which is now in its 7^th year.

We had a smaller girls event this year with only 4 today and 5 overall for the leader board. Defending champions and aiming to be the first ever player, boy or girls, to win back-to-back D&G Mini Tours was Emily Warren. Emily won the November event and was the current Dumfries Tennis Club 8s and under champion. Emily was up against 3 Dumfries Club players who were looking forward to the challenge. Ella Zaremba, Olivia Gordon and Esme Rogerson. The young trio played well but Emily’s experience was just too much on the day as she gained 3 wins out of 3 to take the title on the day and overall Leaderboard. The 3 girls battled it out for 2^nd on the day and runner-up on the leaderboard. There was not a lot in it, as Ella bt Esme, Esme bt Olivia and yes you guested it, Olivia bt Ella which left Esme as runner-up on games percentage.

Well done to all our young ladies and we look forward to seeing them all for years to come.

In the boy’s event we welcomed 9 players. We had 6 Dumfries boys with Samuel Zaoral, Cameron Hodge, Ethan Lees, Ethan West, Blair Dalzell and Louis Darrant. They were joined by Layton McGimpsey from Dalbeattie TC, Calum Grant from Gretna/Canonbie and from Giffnock Tennis Club in Glasgow we had James Crowther.

The round robin groups saw James top his group with Cameron going through as runner up. In the other group Layton McGimpsey top his group with Sam as runner up.

The consolation side saw wins for Ethan L bt Ethan W, Calum bt Louis, Ethan L bt Blair with Calum winning the consolation final 10-3.

In the main draw semi-final Cameron edge a tight one against Layton 10-8 with James beating Samuel 10-5. Samuel took the 3^rd place win against Layton. The final was a repeat of the group match as Cameron took the first point before James took control and rattled of the next 4. Cameron battled well to get to 6-4 but James played a well-controlled match to run out a 10-4 win.

Some brilliant rallies from several players, well done to the little stars.

With Emily taking the girls leaderboard then the count began to see who would take the boys. Layton came third with a 3^rd and 4^th place over the 2 events, Cameron was runner-up twice but the overall winner went to Samuel Zaoral who won the first event and came 3^rd today, just edging past hitting partner Cameron.

Great to see the kids playing some good tennis today.

DAN MASKELL MIXED DOUBLES TOURNAMENT

               Sunday 24^th July Dalbeattie Tennis Club

                       Enter with Partner £5.00pp

                  All proceeds to Dan Maskell Trust

          Entry or further information then contact Keith Thom by text on 07821526388

             Closing Date for entries Friday 22^nd July 5pm

                      **Raffle Prizes Appreciated**

Dalbeattie Tennis Club are running 3 mixed doubles events over 3 Sundays during the summer holiday. To enter then please contact Keith, details below.

• LIONS CUP MIXED DOUBLES (DRAW FOR PARTNER) SUNDAY 10^TH JULY. Entry £4 per player
• DAN MASKELL MIXED DOUBLES (ENTER WITH PARTNER) SUNDAY 24^TH JULY. Entry £5 per player
• BSW TROHPY MIXED DOUBLES (DRAW FOR PARTNER) SUNDAY 7^TH AUGUST. Entry £4 per player

All entries to Keith Thom on 07821526388 or thomkeith@hotmail.com no later than the Friday 6pm before tournament date.  

The district leagues are back with a record number of teams entered for 2022.

We have 11 men’s teams and 9 women’s team’s this year covering Dumfries (7), Kirkcudbright (4), Dalbeattie (3), Annan and Moffat both with 2 teams and Stewartry CSC and Gretna/Canonbie with 1 Women’s team each.

This means we have 2 leagues for the first time for both the men’s and women’s teams.

D&G District Doubles Leagues 2022 – Fixtures and Results

The leagues kick off on the 20th & 21st April and all fixtures and results can be viewed in the link above.

The final event of this years D&G Mini Red Tour had 13 Boys and 6 Girls competing for the medals on the day and the Leaderboard Plaque to hold for a year and stamp their name in D&G Tennis history.

The boys event had 3 round robin groups with the top 2 in each group going into the quarter finals along with the best two 3rd place players. Group A saw Jacob Moore (Thorn Park in Glasgow), Max Dunlop (Kirkcudbright TC) and Noel Cullen (Dumfries TC) as one of the best 3rd place players qualifying for the quarters. Group B players making it in were Olivier Czopek and Samuel Zaoral (Both Dumfries) and Oscar Cairns (Gretna TC) with Group C players being Dumfries Duo Keir MacIntyre and Logan McIntyre.

In the consolation event Niall Muirhead (Gretna TC) edge past Lewis Weir (Dumfries) before losing to Dalbeatties Layton Mcgimpsey in the semi final. In the other semi final Tom Dunlop (Kirkcudbright TC) beat Jasper Burns (Dalbeattie TC). In a tight final Layton held on to complete a 10-8 victory over Tom to win the consolation event.

In the quarter finals of the main draw there were wins for Noel 10-9 against Jacob, Logan 10-4 against Oscar, Keir 10-8 against Max and Olivier 10-2 against Samuel. This left 4 Dumfries boys to play for the title. Noel bt Logan 10-7 whilst Olivier bt Keir 10-8. Keir claimed 3rd spot with a 10-6 win over Logan with Olivier taking the final 10-4 against Noel and with that secured the leaderboard title.

In the girls event the 6 girls completed a round robin group with every girl getting 5 matches. Emily Warren (Dumfries TC) and Fallon McGimpsey (Dalbeattie TC) each won their first 2 matches to sit joint top of the table with Gabriella and Ophelia Forrest (Annan Seaforth TC), Elspeth Dorrian (Kirkcudbright TC) and Hannah Imrie (Canonbie TC) all competing for the remaining places. Fallon edge the game against Emily to sit top and eventually win the event with 5 wins out of 5. Emily managed 4 wins out of 5 to come 2nd with Gabriella, Hannah, Elspeth and Ophelia completing the line up. This left Emily with the most points to secure the 6th Leaderboard title and the 5th time it has been won by girls from Dumfries Tennis Club.

Big Thank you to all the kids who played really well, Thank you also, to the parents for bringing the kids through and to Dominik, Nathan, Erin, Fergus and Tony for helping with the scoring on the day. Thank you all and looking forward to seeing you all in 2022.

D&G Mini Red Tour 2021 December Results

It has been a 19 months break but today (28th) the D&G Mini Red Tour made a welcome return. This event is for 8s and under kids starting out on their Tennis adventure.

The event is now in it’s 6th year and 6 players from that original event are still playing Tennis in D&G.

We had 12 boys today and 5 girls with 5 calling off due to the snow. In the boys event we had 7 Dumfries players, 2 from Kirkcudbright Community Tennis Club, 1 each from Dalbeattie and Gretna Tennis Clubs and one player travelling all the way from the Borders.

With some very exciting tight matches we had Olivier Czopek, Noel Cullen, Keir MacIntyre and Logan McIntyre from Dumfries qualify for the quarter final matches alongside Max and Tom Dunlop from Kirkcudbright Tennis Club, Andrew Kalotka from Dalbeattie TC and William Forbes from the Borders. We had Keir, Olivier, Max and William all winning tight matches to set up semi-final matches with Olivier edging the match against Keir 10-3 to make the final against Max who just got a win over William 10-8. William took 3rd place against Keir before Olivier took the final against Max 10-5.

In the consolation matches Samuel Zaoral and Lewis Weir from Dumfries made the final with wins against Baxter Jardine (Dumfries) and Niall Muirhead (Gretna) with Samuel just taking the tightest of matches against his training partner 10-9. Well done to all those boys today.

In the girls event we had 5 of the regions girls competing in a round robin group. Dumfries’s Emily Warren just claimed top spot with more points won than Hannah Imrie from Canonbie who came 2nd with Gabriella Forrest from Annan Seaforth taking 3rd with Elspeth Dorrian from Kirkcudbright and Emily Verschuren coming 4th and 5th respectfully. Again some brilliant matches for the girls.

The final event is schedule for Sunday 12th December in the David Keswick Centre again. The results can be viewed in the link below and the current table.

Hopefully see you all in 2 weeks.

https://competitions.lta.org.uk/sport/draws.aspx?id=bcd515d8-4ce6-422c-a103-ebc8fcd692fe

The date was the 18th September 2019, this was the last time we manged to play a D&G Mixed Doubles league match in the region.

Fast forward to present day and plans are in place to re-start our Women’s and Men’s Doubles leagues from May 26th 2021, almost 20 months on.

This years reduced program see 5 Women’s teams trying to stop Stewartry CSC women from claiming their 5 title in a row. In the Men’s two leagues Annan Seaforth will be trying to bounce back to the top league as they take on teams from Dumfries, Kirkcudbright and Moffat. Newly promoted Moffat will join Dalbeattie, Dumfries B & C in trying to stop Dumfries A claiming their tenth title in a row.

D&G Leagues Champions Board | Dumfries & Galloway Tennis (dumfriesandgallowaytennis.com)

This years leagues will be played under a slightly different atmosphere as we are unable to provide teams at this time but lets hope for a good competitive league campaign.

All fixtures and results once completed can be found in the link below.

LTA – Tennis for Britain – Dumfries & Galloway Doubles League 2021 – Draws

Dumfries Tennis Club made the 60 mile trip to Galashiels to compete in the inaugural Border Challenge Cup. This event was put together by Dumfries Tennis Club to give their players an opportunity to play team tennis which currently doesn’t happen. The format would see 12s and under, 10s and under and 9s and under kids competing in a 1 day event .

The teams were made up of 13 players in each team with the Borders having 11 Boys and 2 Girls and Dumfries having 6 Girls and 7 Boys. The age groups had 5 players in the under 12s, 4 in the under 10s and 4 in the under 9s with 63 matches to get through on a dreich Scottish day. The young Dumfries team made a mixed start on the 6 courts and at the half way stage of the singles it was the Borders select team who were 5-3 up in the 9s event. In the 10s event Dumfries started well and took a 6-2 lead with the Borders edging their Dumfries counterparts 7-6 in the under 12s event. This had Dumfries in front overall 15- 14 as we entered into the final stages.

At the end of the singles matches the scores had Dumfries 16-9 in front in the 12s event with Dumfries Ethan Leyman winning 5 out of 5 singles matches. In the 10s event Dumfries were 10-6 in front with the Borders Lara Abdrabbo winning her 4 matches. The Borders were 11-5 in front in the 9s event with the youngest player in the event, Dumfries’s Adam Hunter winning all 4 of his matches.

With 6 doubles matches to play Dumfries needed one win to secure the trophy as they led 31-26. This was secured as each team claimed a victory in each age group. The final results had the Borders winning the 9s event 12-6, Dumfries secured the 10s event 11-7 and the 12s event 17-10. With Dumfries winning overall 34-29.

https://competitions.lta.org.uk/sport/tournament.aspx?id=739bdec7-6eb2-4feb-9b75-4667f43096ea Border Challenge Cup Results

The Dumfries team was Cameron Hunter, Ethan Leyman, Logan McCluskey, Autumn Hodgins and Eilidh Topping in the 12s event. Dominik Czopeck, Jack Wearing, Nathan Zaoral and Abigail Warren in the 10s with Adam Hunter, Lucy Scade, Ruby Gordon and Caitlin Topping making up the 9s.