From November 2010-October 2011, the junior club managed to break even largely as a result of junior club nights and bag packing at Easter which made £700.
Tournaments and round robin events covered themselves. Main sponsors were Tesco, Lakeland Veterinary Services (Innes Redmond), with generous donations from fellow club members-John Quinn and Alex Knowles. Also sponsorship was received through Davey Thompson from Cathcarts and Dickies. The Tesco Junior Open had 100 participants with 225 entries. There was a large influx from other clubs and the tournament is now a significant fixture in the Ulster junior calendar.
Many of our juniors participated in tournaments throughout the province and in some tournaments even further afield such as the North Leinster Junior Open Championships at Mullingar and the Junior Open Championships at Malahide and Fitzwilliam.
Achievements
Susannah Hughes- Jordan was crowned the U18 Girls Singles UTP Masters winner in Bangor in September. She represented Ulster at U18 level and won her two matches against Munster and Connacht before losing to the Leinster No 1 Grainne O’Neill in her last match (Grainne has represented Ireland in the Federation Cup). Suzannah won five U18 titles including Mullingar, Ballycastle, Enniskillen , Irvinestown and Co Armagh. She emerged the No1 Ulster junior at U18 level for 2011.
Abigail Greene was also ranked in the top 10 in Ulster at U18.
Conor Donaldson won the provincial matchplays at U18 in spring (no 1 in Ulster rankings). His season was curtailed by injury in the Co Antrim Championships in Ballycastle. However, Conor came back to win U18 singles at Irvinestown later in the year. He participated in the U18 Boys Singles UTP Masters in September and actually beat the overall winner (Omar Mowlood) in an earlier round of the competition. In spite of playing few tournaments, Conor finished no 8 in Ulster.
Scott Gilbride and Steven Miller are two other very promising players to also leave the junior ranks this year.
Hannah Cousins won U14 in Irvinestown- well inside top 10 in Ulster
Jared Monaghan won the U14 at CIYMS, Belfast when unseeded. Won Irvinestown U14. Currently ranked No 8 inUlster Headon Hughes- Jordan also moved rapidly up the ranks at U14 level culminating in two wins over Jared Monaghan in the Enniskillen Closed.
Others to feature prominently include Alison Glass- regularly got to semi-finals at U14
Sarah Cousins won the U12s at CIYMS also the Louth Championships in Dundalk and Enniskillen. In April, Sarah finished 6th out of 16 in the U12 National matchplays in Dublin and finished highest placed of the three Ulster players that played. Currently vying for No2 in Ulster- Eimear Smyth also made the top 10 in Ulster.
A number of our juniors qualified for the Ulster Masters Junior Tournament at the beginning of September. You must be placed in the top 10 of your age group in Ulster before you can be invited. The following juniors qualified, Jared Monaghan, Alison Glass, Sarah Cousins, Hannah Cousins, Abigail Greene, Emily Donaldson, Connor Donaldson and Susannah Hughes Jordan.
Junior development
Tennis Tens – Two events were held during the year. Louise takes ongoing weekly squads that develop the under tens.
Performance squads – There are two performance squads- an U12 squad that trains four hours a week and an U16 squad that trains for 5 hours a week.
There are numerous other development squads that train every week.
Friday nights continue to be successful and provide the main route into the junior club. Matthew and Louise’s easter and summer camps have proved extremely popular and serve as another means of recruiting new members.
The Adult Closed Tournament was open to juniors in the performance squads at U12 and above. This was deemed a success by both adults and juniors and presented a rare opportunity for adults and juniors at the club to come together.
Finally, the junior committee would like to thank both Matthew and Louise for their significant contribution throughout the year. The achievements of our juniors indicate that given the same quality of coaching as those juniors in Belfast, Ballymena and elsewhere, they are more than capable of competing at Ulster and indeed Ireland level.
In closing, special thanks to Brian Donaldson and Helen Cooper who have served the junior committee so well in recent years and who are now standing down.
