The first competition of the new D&G Mini Red Tennis Tour started in Dumfries (31st January). The first event had 11 boys and 7 girls entered with a total of 44 matches being played at the Loreburn Hall. Players from Beechgrove Tennis Club in Moffat, Dumfries Tennis Club and Seaforth Tennis Club in Annan took part with winners coming from all 3 clubs. In the boys event Euan Sharp (DTC) beat Fergus Reynolds-Lewis (DTC) 10-4 in the final and now sits top of the leaderboard, in the boys consolation final Alfie Kowal (STC) beat Kyle Smith (BTC) 10-7.

Euan and Rose with their winners medals

In the girls final Rose Brown (BTC) edged past Keeley Scott (BTC) 10-4 and is top of the girls leaderboard and in the consolation Round Robin final Evie McKnight (DTC) defeated Erin McCluskey (DTC) 10-8 and Hannah Salmon (BTC) 10-7

D&G Mini Red Tour Leaderboard

The next event is in Annan on the 20th February.

Despite the recent snow fall, a few hardy (foolish) individuals clear a court at Dumfries Tennis Club ready for play.

Tennis Scotland have provisionally arrange for a Level 1 coaching course to be run in Dumfries.

This course is the starting point for coaches or individuals who want to help coaches deliver mini tennis session. Sports Scotland offer a 40% grant towards the £205 cost which you should apply for first before the course.

Course Details

To insure we have sufficient numbers, interested parties should contact Dumfries and Galloway tennis in the first instance, email tennis@dumfriessportsclub.co.uk

The course need 8 people to ensure it runs and the provisional dates are Saturday 2nd and Sunday 3rd of April with a follow up date of 30th April.

Dumfries and Galloway Tennis will be running what is believed to be the first Mini Red Tour in the area. The Mini Red Tour is a pilot event for 2016 and a great opportunity for players 8 and under (born on or after 1 April 2007) to take their coaching and get some competitive experience under their belts without having to travel too far, improve their ratings and hopefully have lots of great fun playing a wonderful sport that is hoped they will play for many years to come. These events will be open to any child living in Dumfries and Galloway.

The tour will consists of 3 competitions at Dumfries on Sunday January 31^st – 2pm to 4pm, Annan on Saturday February 20^th – 1pm to 4pm and at Moffat on Sunday March 20^th – 2pm to 5pm.

Each event has the same draw format (round robin groups) followed by knockout matches with group winners and second places going through to the main draw and group losers going into the consolation event (subject to numbers and interest). They will be looking to run both girls and boys events at each venue with both having their own leaderboard.

Individual performance at each venue is rewarded with points ranging from 100 for winning the event to 5 for losing in the first round of the consolation. These points are accumulated over the 3 events and the top boy and girl will receive a trophy each. There will also be medals awarded at each event for the top 3 players in each category.

The leaderboards will be updated  with reports being regularly posted on D&G Tennis website as well as the local papers.

The main priority of these events is the enjoyment, improvement and they don’t have to play in every event ALTHOUGH 50 BONUS POINTS WILL BE AWARDED TO THOSE DOING ALL 3 EVENTS.

To enter an event or all events, simple email  tennis@dumfriessportsclub.co.uk and request an entry form.

The tennis calendar for 2016 has now been updated and can be viewed the relevant start dates of each event under that “tab”.

Next year D&G Tennis are running a pilot mini red tour (8yrs and under), this will consist of 3 events held at Dumfries in January at the Loreburn Hall, Annan in February at the high school with the final one at the Beechgrove sports centre (tbc) in Moffat and this will be in March. These events are the starting point for kids playing tennis at the entry level with the hope that they will progress to junior players through time. These 3 clubs have been selected to run these events as they all still have active junior coaching programmes running throughout the winter.

If successful, we would be looking to expand this to a 5 or 6 event tour next winter, if other clubs are interested in joining the tour.

Orange and Green events are being looked at for a summer program so watch this space for more details.

The Tennis Scotland forums will provide an opportunity for clubs and venues to network and share best practice however will also include updates from Tennis Scotland on the structure of the development team, facilities funding, venue registration and some of the associated benefits and resources available for the coming year – See more at: Tennis Scotland Forum at Dumfries Ice Bowl

The forthcoming AGM will be held at the Walker & Sharp Office, 37 George Street, Dumfries on Tuesday 24th November 2015. The committee would appreciate there being at least one representative from each club in attendance at the AGM where possible.

If there are any motions /resolutions /nominations for Committee positions these should be intimated to Lister McKiddie in advance of the AGM

Dumfries Tennis Club is running a men’s singles open competition on Sunday 1st November. The event is open to any male player with a LTA rating between 8.2 and 10.2. Each player is guaranteed 2 matches on the day.

To enter just email or text Michael, the link below gives you all the details.

Dumfries Singles open event

Both Dumfries teams finished their respective fixtures with mixed fortunes. Despite some outstanding individual wins Dumfries B’s results read played 4 matches and lost four matches. Overall the standard of opponents against the B team was quality but some gutsy play and some fun trips up north made for a good campaign.

Dumfries A on the other hand secured a final day victory thanks to a walk-over against Waverly who failed to get a team. Overall it was a disappointing campaign with only Kyle Singh recording 2 wins and Richie Cunningham recording a single win. They played 3 home matches with both away games awarded as walk-overs, one for , one against.

Looking forward to next year!

Aegon National Leagues Results 2015

Dumfries Tennis Club enters 2 teams for the national leagues for the 5th year in a row.

Dumfries Men’s First Team started their first national club league round robin with a match against Dunblane last weekend. Dunblane fielded a strong side which thankfully did not include Andy Murray ! Dumfries fielded a team with a blend of youth and experience. At 1, Lister McKiddie guile was not enough to overcome a highly ranked junior. At 2 Alex Sherman pushed his quality opponent all the way losing narrowly in a match tie break 10-8. Richie Cunningham at 3 put up a fighting performance but went down 6-3, 6-2. Kyle Singh at 4 had a good win, 6-1, 6-2.

The second round involved two doubles ties. Richie and Kyle combined well to almost win the second set, losing 6-0, 6-4. Lister and Alex combined and pushed their strong opponents all the way with only one break serve in each set, going down 6-3, 6-4. The overall result was therefore a 5-1 defeat, however, Dumfries are hoping to bounce back quickly with a win against Falkirk this weekend.

Dumfries second team’s scheduled Division 4 match in Fife was rained off.

This week sees the first team travel to Falkirk whilst the seconds entertain Rubislaw 2nd from Aberdeen.

Fixtures and results can be viewed using the link below.

Aegon National Leagues Results and Fixtures 2015