Today BLTC held our annual Captain’s Day celebrations, hosted by Ethan Sims and Eleanor Ireland.
We were incredibly lucky to have such wonderful weather for the event. It was spilt into 2 sections - primary school 9-11:30 and secondary school 2-4:30.
Both groups participated in various team challenges throughout their sessions with both singles and doubles match plays.
The teams in the primary school session were split into Team Swiatek and Team Djokovic.
The ROG players had a terrific morning competing against different players within their ball group.
Team Swiatek came out on top with 500 points to Team Djokovic’s 435.
After their matches players had the opportunity to play their favourite fun tennis games including champion of the court, team jail, around the world and crocodile river to name but a few.
One of the highlights of the morning was our parent/child tournament which proved a big success.
We had both a red ball and an orange ball tournament for the juniors and their parents. Fourteen juniors and their parents entered the competition.
Well done to Bethany and her dad for winning the red ball final against Thomas and his mum.
While in the orange ball final, it was Sophie and her dad who won against Izzy and her father.
Once on court events finished, we went inside for a wonderful continental breakfast which was provided by the BLTC parents.
The juniors were treated to lots of lovely juices (apple, orange, tropical), tasty breads (croissants, bagels, Pain au chocolat), fruits and sweet treats, including tasty doughnuts.
They certainly had worked up an appetite through their two hours of on court fun.
In the second session it was the turn of the secondary school players to have their afternoon of fun.
The two groups for this session were entitled Team Sabalenka and Team Sinner.
The 5 courts again played a mixture of doubles matches, followed by singles points against those on their court.
There were some really engaging points on display, with players getting to play a variety of opponents.
The main thing was everyone was able to have a great time while socialising with their friends.
After the Team Challenge event we then played a one point shoot out tournament. The juniors really enjoyed this event, with many rising to the challenge and pressure which the one point format posed
There were two groups created, with a random generator selecting who played who. The winner of group A was Ashton and the winner of group B was Lizzy.
The juniors then went inside for a tasty pizza and pudding party.
We would like to thank our club sponsor, The Pizza Parlour, Ballymena for providing the club with 10 Pizzas for the juniors. These proved very popular, as it didn’t take them long to have the 10 boxes completely empty!
Following our pizzas, we had so many beautiful desserts provided by our BLTC Parents, including, cupcakes, cheesecake, Profiteroles, cakes, brownies, apple tart, ice cream, the list was endless.
Our parents truly outdid themselves with the refreshments today, with everyone leaving full.
We had an internal tennis themed bake off competition, with Zara Cumming winning with her wonderful captains day inspired cake, which when cut had the BLTC colours.
Everyone at BLTC would like to thank our captains for the truly wonderful day they organised. You did yourselves and the club proud. It was evident to see how much you care for the club and its members.
We would also like to thank our wonderful parent support group for giving their morning and afternoon up to help cater for the event. Without your unwavering support and commitment in helping run these social events, it wouldn’t be possible to hold what we do.
This brings to a close a wonderful tennis year for the club. This weekend we had over 80 juniors attending both our events, with a junior membership standing at close to 100 , the club is truly blossoming.
We can’t wait for the 24/25 season to start with new sessions beginning Friday 12th April. Let’s make the incoming tennis year even bigger than our last.
