The third and final mini red tour competition for 2016 was completed at Beechgrove Sports Centre in Moffat on 20^th March. Again we had another large entry with 18 boys and 7 girls competing for the top prize with the overall leaderboard trophies also being decided on the day.

The tour was created for children 8 years and under to play tennis on red size courts which is the equivalent of a badminton size court. Players would accumulate points for each event they played in with medals being awarded for the winners, runners-up, third place and consolation winners at each event with the overall point’s winner receiving at trophy at the end.

Children from Seaforth Tennis Club in Annan, Beechgrove Tennis Club in Moffat, Dumfries Tennis Club and some children from Langholm took part over the 3 events during January, February and March.

On the day, Rose Brown and Daniel Palmer both from Moffat were top of the respective leaderboards with Rose undefeated having won the two previous events with Daniel having won at Annan and making the semi-final at Dumfries. Rose was in the position where she just had to turn up and she was guaranteed the leaderboard title but she was in great form again and completed the event and tour undefeated to collect her third winner’s medal and the overall leaderboard trophy as she defeated Julia Janowska 10-2 in the final. Keeley Scott (BTC) came second in the leaderboard table having lost in 2 finals to Rose and the semi-final to Julia at Moffat, Erin McCluskey (DTC) came third in the table with two forth places and was consolation runners-up in the other event, Evie Mcknight came fourth in the table as she managed to win all three consolation finals. Hannah Salmon, Eve Crombie and Brooke Rogerson were the other girls making up the leaderboard.

In the boys event Fergus Reynolds-Lewis (DTC), Jacob Holden (DTC) and Daniel McKenna (STC) were all looking to catch Daniel Palmer at the top of the leaderboard and after the round robin stages all four boys had qualified for the quarter finals along with the Dumfries winner Euan Sharp (DTC), Devon Jones (STC), Kyle Smith (BTC) and Oliver McKnight (DTC). In the quarters Daniel McKenna edged past Euan Sharp 11-9, Fergus Reynolds-Lewis beat Devon Jones 10-2, Daniel Palmer beat Kyle Smith 10-3 and Dumfries pair Jacob Holden and Oliver McKnight had a hard fought match with Jacob scrapping the win 13-11. With the top four boys in the semi-finals it was all to play for with Fergus Reynolds-Lewis taking on Daniel McKenna with Fergus taking the match 10-5 and in the other semi Daniel Palmer played and beat Jacob Holden 10-4 to set up a final with Fergus. In the third place play-off Daniel McKenna beat Jacob Holden 10-4 which secured Daniel third place in the leaderboard with Jacob coming fourth overall. The final match of the tour saw Daniel Palmer play Fergus Reynolds-Lewis, with the point’s available Daniel had already secured the leaderboard event, although he wasn’t aware of this at the time, with Fergus guaranteed second place with getting to the final, this just left the matter of playing the last match of a successful tour. With a few parents and children remaining Mike McMillin got the match underway and with some great tennis and long rallies it was Fergus who took an early lead and never looked back as he eventually won the match 10-4 to claim the Moffat title. In the consolation final Gregor Ritson beat Ben Rogerson (BTC) 10-4. D&G Mini Red Tour – Moffat Results

Fergus, Daniel Palmer & Daniel McKenna

Overall, 3 events with 3 winners in Euan Sharp at Dumfries, Daniel Palmer at Annan and Fergus at Moffat with Daniel securing the leaderboard title with 290 points with Fergus coming second on 260 and Danile McKenna coming third with 225.

D&G Mini Red Tour Final Leaderboard

Rose & Daniel with their leaderboard trophies