For the first time in the club’s history, Thrapston Tennis Club have entered an Under 8s team in the Northants Aegon league.

Thrapston’s first fixture was a tough away match against Northampton County, a large club with an established coaching programme. Thrapston on the other hand have only recently created their Mini Red performance group and they selected their players from this new squad.

The four players in the Thrapston team were Hollie, Kira, Oscar and Andrew.

Each fixture has four rounds of 4 matches. In a very tight first round, Thrapston edged into an early lead 3 – 1.The 2nd, 3rd and 4th rounds all finished 2 – 2. Therefore Thrapston got the win against Northampton County 9 – 7!

Hollie: won 3 of her matches with some excellent play. Her only defeat was to the Northampton County Number 1.

Kira: in only her 2nd competition showed great improvement and managed two wins. She put in a very determined performance, producing excellent play on the court, including winning a match 10 – 8 after being 6 – 1 down.

Oscar: also won 2 matches, proving to be very adept at keeping the ball in court and forcing his opponent to make errors. Oscar is happy to rally forever and seemed to enjoy watching his opponents tire.

Andrew: won 2 matches by battling for every point, even trying to give his opponents a chance by serving outside the court! He fought hard for every point and his victories were well deserved.

This was a great result for Thrapston. Captain and Head Coach Peter Harding said he was delighted with all aspects of the performance of his players in their first league match and the victory was a bonus. His pre-match team talk was to just go out and enjoy playing no matter what the result.

All 4 players deserve great credit for their performance. Well done team!