Dumfries Tennis Club were hosts for the 6th Border Challenge Cup, which sees Dumfries & Galloway up against the Borders districts in this 12 player team event.
The format sees 16 singles matches and 2 doubles per each age group, which are 9s, 10s and 12s. D&G secure the first 4 events from 2020 to 2023 with the Borders securing a victory last year 32-22.
This years D&G team was a truly region wide groups with players from Langholm, Eaglesfield, Annan, Dumfries, Dalbeattie, Lochmaben and Kirkcudbright area.
In last years event Borders secure an 18-0 victory over the D&G 9s, so this year D&G were looking to tightened the gap if possible and they managed to achieve this as the 9s event finished 9-9. The 10s event was secured by D&G as they edged past the Borders 12-6. This left the 12s event, which last years was D&Gs stronger age group, but this year Borders took the spoils with a 13-5 win to secure the 12s and the overall event 28-26.
9s event – D&G 9 – 9 Borders
10s event – D&G 12 – 6 Borders
12s event – D&G 5 – 13 Borders
Overall D&G 26 – 28 Borders
Well done to the Borders on securing their 2nd Border Challenge Cup. Big thank you to Mike Palmer for bring his team through and all the Border parents and kids. See you all next year in the Borders.
Well done to our D&G young ones. A very good effort and only just coming up short. Well done all.
Picture right to left, Hannah Lorimer, Haelan Parkin, Calum Grant, Layton McGimpsey, Cameron Hodge, Ethan Lees, Hector Kerr, Theo Guthrie, Sam Zaoral, Hamish Girgan, Fallon McGimpsey and missing from the picture but very much part of the team Fergus Hope-Dunbar. Big thank you to all our players and parents for their support and a big shout-out to oor Fallon who after 4 years has played in her last event as she outgrows the event. She has played 20 matches over the 4 years with 17 wins and only 3 defeats. Thank you young lady.
Likewise for the Borders, 2 very special ladies also outgrow the event, Emily Freitakaite who played in 4 events and Stella Leyshon who has played in 5 events over the years. Thank you ladies for being a big supporter of this event and good luck for the rest of the year.
The 2025 Scottish Inter District Team Championship came to a close at 5.30pm on Tuesday 8th April. We had 4 days of glorious sunshine and lots of entertaining tennis along the way.
This event is open to all 9 Scottish districts who cover the whole of Scotland.
After a lengthy absence, Dumfries & Galloway have now attended the last 3 years and have come 7th out of 9 districts over the previous 2 years. So, no pressure on us….
Days 1 and 2 are always hard for the smaller populated districts and you are always looking for a kind draw, but sadly that didn’t work out for us this year. None of the players managed a win during the first 2 days despite most of the kids playing to their best level. Just Fergus and Fallon managed to get a match each to a championship tie break but lost both. Our 18s took on Central and West, 15s had Tayside and Highlands with our 12s taking on North East and West again.
Day 3 we started fresh with all 3 D&G teams dropping into the 7th to 9th play-off groups. Despite the first 2 days the team were in good spirit, which is a testament to having a close group of players who train most weeks together. The day started well with Fergus Reynolds-Lewis bringing home the first win of the event with his 18s singles match against Borders No1, which was closely followed with wins for Autumn Hodgins and Jacob Holden who also played Border players. Isla McFarlane and Caitlin Topping got the first win for the 15s team as they edge past the Ayrshire girls in their doubles match and Fallon McGimpsey completed the wins in the morning sessions as the 12s got their first match win against Ayrshire also. The afternoon session came to a close for day 3 with further wins for Fergus, Fallon, Autumn, Isla and Catlin with Eamon McFarlane and Jack Wearing gaining a win in their doubles match against Borders and Eilidh Topping getting her first win of the event.
We finished day 3 with the legendary quiz which D&G managed to win, so a little reward for the kids.
Day 4 started with all to play for but knowing we were up against it as other districts had team outwith the bottom groups.
The message was simple for day 4, give your all, support your team mates, try and enjoy the experience and what will be will be.
Day 4 would see our 18s complete their 2 doubles matches against both the Borders and Highlands. Both matches had us with a 3-1 lead with 4 being the magic number. The 12s were 3-1 down in both their matches with the doubles to play also, whilst our 15s would complete their singles matches against our fellow South of Scotland teams, with the scores at 2-0 up against Borders and 1-1 against Ayrshire.
Early start for our 15s as they headed to the courts for 8.30am. This, would see them complete their match with Ayrshire which stood at 1-1 after the doubles. Isla got the first win followed by Caitlin to make it 3-1 before Jack was just edged out by Ayrshire’s No2. With the match poised at 3-2 to D&G, then all eyes focussed on Eamon’s match against Ayrshire. He was 1 set down and 5-4 down before digging deep to take it to a set tie-break. Ayrshire started the strongest in the tie-break and just kept Eamon at bay to level the tie at 3-3, this meant our first champ tie-break shoot-out to decide who would win the match. Eamon partnered his big sister Isla for D&G and both started nervously as Ayrshire took the early points before they rallied round to eventually take the match 10-8 to D&G. This gave us the first team win of the event. This was quickly followed by our 2nd as our 18s boys and girls just edged past Borders to win that tie 5-1. Our 12s again suffered a painful championship tie-break loss to Ayrshire. This was the 3rd in the group and Unfortunely we went down 5-1 in this match. Our 15s completed their matches against the Borders to take that tie and despite some good matches our 12s just could not managed a win despite playing some really good tennis. They lost their final match to finish bottom of their group. Our 18s completed the day with 2 more wins in the doubles to take the tie against the Highlands 5-1.
This left our 12s in 9th out of 9, 15s came 7th and our 18s came 7th, overall, we finish 9th with a point’s total of 7 which in the previous 2 years would have been enough to secure 7th, but just not this year.
We literally could not fault our kids as to a player they all played to the top of their game when opponents allowed them. Overall, despite the results our kids had a tremendous 4 day residential and hopefully we will be back on 2026 to do it all again.
Thank you
This event does come at a cost, financially and personal commitment for many people. We would like to thank the Holywood Trust for their support with this. Their support ensured we took a team with no cost to the families involved. Thanks also to Tennis D&G who support the event with their financial contribution, the parents who take time out of their working life and holidays to come and support the kids, many of then spending their first nights away from the family home and parents.
Thank you to Dumfries Tennis Club and Dumfries Sports Club for providing the facilities and coaches to run training sessions through the winter. Team captains Michael and Rebecca Topping who give up their time for free to make sure the kids are there and supported and looked after over the 4 days. Finally, the players. Jacob Holden and Fergus Reynolds-Lewis who have competed in their last district event as they outgrow the age groups next year. Eilidh and Caitlin Topping, Eamon and Isla McFarlane, Fallon McGimpsey, Jack Wearing, Autumn Hodgins and the 3 youngers kids who held the team together and despite no wins and played tennis to be proud of, Brodie Wishart, Olivier Czopek and the girls with the biggest smile, Eva Fingland. Without the commitment of these 12 players, we wouldn’t have a team. Thank you all and hopefully we are back in 2026. Go team D&G
Dumfries & Galloway Tennis 