Junior Achievements
In April, Lansdowne Tennis Club played host to the U16s National Matchplays. Half
of the Ulster U16 representation was Enniskillen produced, a fitting tribute to coach,
Matthew McGann. The three juniors from Enniskillen were Jared Monaghan, Sarah
Cousins and Laura Griffin having first qualified from the Western Region matchplays
and then from the Provincial matchplays. All performed with great credit, Sarah was
placed 5th, Jared 9th and Laura 14th in their respective events.
Summer was a busy time for our juniors. Sarah Cousins took part in several
tournaments at U16 level. Despite it being her first year in this age group she played
many of the national events in the Dublin area and made two finals at the Dublin
events. At a key event at Donnybrook in Dublin Sarah beat Emma Prehn, Lisa Lyons
and Laura Noble to progress to the final and justify her No 2 seeding. However, the
final saw the number one seed Caragh Courtney win in straight sets. Sarah won
through to the final of the Ulster Junior Hardcourt finals at CIYMS in Belfast and the
Shankill Junior Open in Dublin but was beaten by her old adversary Amy Rothwell.
Sarah finished her season in some style at the County Londonderry senior
championships hosted at Limavady. She was defending her singles title there and
won it again in convincing fashion with a 6/1 6/1 win against Donna McSorley in the
final. She went on to win the mixed doubles with her coach Matthew McGann.
Ronan McKeever having won the U16 Boys Singles at Castlebar early in the
summer progressed well in many tournaments. He lost to Stephen O’Boyle 7-5 6-3 in
the quarter finals in CIYMS Hardcourt Championships. At the main junior event in
Northern Ireland at the Belfast Boat Club, he beat the No3 seed Jordan McKeown
(Bangor) on the way but eventually lost out to Matthew Robinson (Ballymena) in the
semi-finals. In the U18 Boys Singles, Daire Dillon progressed to the final of the
Tyrone Junior Open just losing out to Thomas Muldoon of Lurgan.
Matthew Duffy fresh from a tennis excursion to America, was somewhat unlucky to
lose to the No 2 seed Benjamin Cree in CIYMS Hardcourt Championships 6-7 1-6 in
the quarter finals of U18 boys singles. He did well to get through the qualifiers in the
Belfast Boat Club but lost out in an even tighter match to Benjamin Cree 4-6 7-5 6-7.
In the U18 boys doubles at Carrickmines in Dublin, Matthew teamed up with Sean
Quinlan to progress to the final beating the No 2 seeds Dorian Kos and Maxim
Mozola before losing out to the No 1 seeds.
Eimear Smyth enjoyed a good summer culminating in success in the U14 Girls
Singles at the Belfast Hardcourt Championships. Eimear’s successful season was
acknowledged by means of selection to play for Ulster at the U14 Interprovicial
matchplay event hosted at Castlebar. Ulster beat Munster 4-2 and beat Connaught
4-2. Eimear and her partner were the successful pair when they played Leinster
winning their doubles match. With very tight matches Ulster ultimately lost to Leinster
5-1. Overall though, it was a great display of Ulster tennis.
In the U16 Boys Singles at the Leinster Junior Open at Lansdowne, Jared Monaghan
progressed through the qualifiers to gain entry into the main draw. In a match to
decide a place in the quarter finals, Jared was beaten by the eventual winner Sean
O’Callaghan (Dublin). Jared joined Ronan McKeever, Matthew Duffy and Laura
Griffin in the Irish Junior Open at Fitzwilliam in August. This is the biggest
tournament in the junior calendar in Ireland. Both Laura and Ronan came through
the qualifiers with Laura progressing to the last 16 before being knocked out by the
No 8 seed Cora Moloney. Ronan put in some spirited performances before being put
out by the No 3 seed Sean O’Callaghan. In an international tournament in Belfast ,
Ronan was narrowly beaten by Ulster No 1 Jakob Robb 7-5 in the deciding set and
Laura was also narrowly beaten by Romanian Maria Savu also in three sets.
The Irvinestown duo of Ryan Irvine and Kyran Maguire train with Enniskillen’s
performance squad and they also achieved some fine results over the summer.
Kyran reached the final of the U14 boys singles at Castlebar only to just lose out in a
third set tie-break to the No1 seed from Dublin. Kyran also reached the final of the
singles in the Co Louth Championships in Dundalk. Ryan was a shade unlucky
losing out to Chris Proctor in the U16 Boys Singles at Windsor and narrowly missed
out on a place in the final when beaten by the No 2 seed Niall Butler from Sligo in the
West of Ireland Championships.
For the first time in their history, the Mount Lourdes Senior Team captured the Ulster
School’s Tennis Cup. In fact, this is the first time the cup has moved outside the
Belfast area and really underlines the outstanding achievement of this small group of
girls. The six girls- Hannah Cousins, Eimear Smyth, Dearbhla Dillon, Claire Reihill,
Laura Griffin and Sarah Cousins are all coached by Matthew McGann at the
Enniskillen Club.
The U10s age group has been competing in events in Enniskillen, Irvinestown,
Omagh, Dunedin, Windsor, Boat Club Belfast and Dundalk. Although the emphasis
in U10s is not on individual achievement, our youngsters regularly finish high up on
the list of most promising performers.
Coaches – Matthew, Louise & Josh
Due to the high quality of U10 players coming through at the club, Louise has just
started a third performance squad focused on the U12s. Coaching continues apace
at the Model Primary School. Several other primary schools were coached by Josh
Hanna during the year.
Friday Club Nights
Friday clubnights continue to be well supported. To encourage more juniors into the
club via the clubnight route, we have started to issue one free Friday clubnight pass
to each participant at any school which has engaged in a tennis coaching
programme with Matthew, Louise or Josh.
Junior Open – Enniskillen
Thanks to all our sponsors including Devenish Practice who sponsored the Junior
Round Robin. Special thanks to Innes Redmond of Lakeland Veterinary Services
who sponsored our main event, the West of Ulster Junior Open. Also to ASDA for
continuing to allow us an annual bag-pack
Way forward
ELTC is currently seeking Clubmark accreditation. This is focused on the
development of junior tennis at clubs throughout Ulster and reflects a mark of quality
in the areas of effective management, quality coaching and competition, safety in
sport and sports equity and ethics.
Thanks
Fermanagh Junior Tennis featured prominently in Junior Awards Impartial Reporter,
Fermanagh Herald Sports Awards, District Council. Our sincere thanks once again to
Matthew and Louise McGann for their hard work, professionalism and enthusiasm
throughout the year
Our congratulations also to Matthew on being chosen to represent Ireland in the
World Team Championships in Florida in April
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