The 4th D&G Mini Red Tour kicked off at the David Keswick Centre in Dumfries on Sunday 27th January. The first of 3 event started with 12 girls and 8 boys competing for the top prize on the day and to make a mark on the leaderboard early on. 
The girls event started with 3 round robin groups with the top 2 in each group going into the last 8 knock-out event and they would be joined by the best 2 third placed girls in the 3 groups. After some great matches we had Clara Lebeque (Huddersfield Tennis Club), Stella Hodgins (Dumfries Tennis Club), Ava Rimmington (Northumberland Tennis Club), Eilidh Tait (Kilmarnock TC), Evie McAllister (Prestwick TC) and Lara Abdrabbo (Tennis Borders) all qualify automatically and they were joined by Dumfries Caitlin Topping and Erin McKenna from Annan Seaforth TC. In the last 8 Ava bt Erin 10-7, Evie bt Stella 10-2, Lara bt Eilidh 10-3 and Clara completed the draw with a 10-4 win over Caitlin. In the semi’s Evie edged past Ava 10-4 before Clara and Lara played a sublime match with Clara just getting over the line with a 10-8 victory. Lara came 3rd overall with a win over Ava 10-5 before Clara again had another epic match against Evie which saw both girls play some outstanding tennis, however Clara kept her nerve to complete the win 10-7. In the girls consolation event 4 Dumfries girls battled it out before Abigail Warren overcame Lucy Scade 10-6 to take the medal. In the final match for the girls older sister Hannah Goldie edge past her younger sister Ailsa 10-3. Great to see so many girls playing and more importantly enjoying the experience.
D&G Mini Red Tour Leaderboard 2019
In the boys event is was slightly disappointing to only see 8 competing but great to see 2 boys from the Stewartry competing in their 1st and 2nd Red ball event. The 2 groups were keenly contested with the top 2 in each going into the semi finals of the main draw and the other four boys going back into a consolation draw. Group A saw hitting partners Dominik Czopek and Jack Wearing (Both Dumfries Tennis Club) qualify for the semis and they were joined another Dumfries pair in Ethan Leyman and Logan McCluskey who has play in all four tours over the 4 years and he is still only 8yrs. In the first semi Jack eased passed Ethan 10-1 although the match was closer than the score suggests. In the other semi Dominik, who was fresh from a victory on Saturday at a Cumbrian event, took on Logan for a place in the final. Logan started strongly and after that the boys went toe-toe but Domink just couldn’t catch him as Logan completed the win 10-7. Dominik edge past Ethan 10-8 in the 3rd/4th pay-off before Logan held his nerve to win the final against Jack with a 10-5 scoreline.
In the consolation event Eamon McFarlane (Stewartry CSC) and Isaac Sharp (DTC) edge past Angus McCleary (Annan Seaforth TC) and Samuel Donnelly (Dalbeattie Tennis Club) respectively before Eamon won the Consolation final with a 10-7 win over Isaac.
Well done to all the kids who all showed great sportsmanship and throughly enjoyed the day. The next event is scheduled for Saturday 16th at Annan Sports Hall.
Dumfries & Galloway Tennis 