Sporting Success at Inspiration Trust Secondary Tennis Tournament

Inspiration Trust secondary academies arrived in Cromer this week to take part in the Secondary Tennis Tournament held at Cromer Lawn Tennis & Squash Club. The Year 9 and 10 tournament took place on Thursday, with the Tuesday tournament for Year 7 and 8 unfortunately cancelled due to adverse weather. 

Pupils were excited to get started, as for many it was the first time attending a tennis club, and playing tennis on grass courts – a very different experience to playing on the typical hard courts that are found at a number of Inspiration Trust schools. Grass courts take a lot of time and effort to maintain so it was a wonderful experience for our pupils to be able to take advantage of playing on these courts. Many were excited to find out they were the same size courts as would be used at Wimbledon and some commented how they had been following the tournament over the last couple of weeks. 

Doubles teams faced off from our secondary academies and every team faced each other at least once over the course of the day in the round-robin style tournament – teams had the chance to cheer on their year group counterparts throughout the day with lots of encouragement and support provided from the onlookers. 

Timed matches meant all players could take full advantage of time on the courts and the scoring reflected lots of games being played between the teams on court. Some teams even managed to get up to 5 or 6 games in the time given to them! 

Paul Wayman, Trust Sports Coordinator said: 

“It was an exciting day of tennis with lots of our students insprired by the current Wimbledon tournament and eager to have a chance to play on the wonderful grass courts at Cromer Lawn Tennis and Squash Club. Our students showed great sportsmanship and resilience over the course of the day, seemingly growing stronger and stronger with each subsequent game they played.  

 

Having the opportunity to come to a tennis club renowned for its grass courts was a great opportunity for our pupils with many excited to attend clubs in their local areas as a result of the tournament. Our appreciation goes to Cromer Academy sports leaders for facilitating the the smooth running of the event. A massive thank you to all the staff at Cromer Lawn Tennis and Squash Club for their support hosting the event and Tony Devenish for his part in awarding prizes to our winners.” 

The day concluded with our players thrilled with their performances, and more often than not players were delighted by how well they had played in the tournament. The prize giving ceremony was supported by Tony Devenish from the Lawn Tennis Association for our overall winners and our players of the tournament. 

The final standings for the tournament are shown below: 

Year 9 Overall Winner – East Point Academy 

Year 10 Overall Winner – Hethersett Academy 

Awards were also given to individuals that showed particularly impressive efforts of skill and sportsmanship across the day: 

Reuben Drostle – Jane Austen College 

Gemma Dade – Hewett Academy 

Tommy Steed – Cromer Academy 

Alex Hook – East Point Academy 

Jamie Simon – King Edward VII Academy 

Abigail Pollington – Hethersett Academy 

Marta Nowkowska – Wayland Academy 

Ellis Greenlees – Great Yarmouth Charter Academy