TENNIS

Awards

Summer inevitably brings Awards season and this year has been another good one for Tennis

As another year closes on BUCS and National Premier League competition, it is a nice chance to look at some of the Tennis highlights of the summer term and look forward to the exciting 2023/24 season.

Summary Competition

For our students, summer term meant the start of the individual competition season with lots of our top players entering LTA sanctioned events around the country

Amongst the many matches and results, the standout performance came from BUCS men’s team players Jack Ritchie and Jamie Blunt The pair progressed through the Play Your Way To Wimbledon event all the way to the National Finals held at Wimbledon on 8th August.

This was an amazing achievement and allowed Jack and Jamie not only a shot at winning the competition, but also the opportunity to go and train, compete and experience fully the All England Lawn Tennis Club.

It was a brilliant achievement for our outgoing Men’s BUCS Captain George Webber to receive a Director’s Award at the annual REDS Awards ceremony in June George has been an outstanding member of the UBTC community for 4 years and the award recognised many of the exceptional achievements he has reached.

UBTC made it to the National finals of the LTA Tennis Awards, competing for University of the Year The club made it to the final three alongside Leeds Beckett and Exeter University but unfortunately lost out to Exeter. Regardless, to be recognised as one of the top 3 university tennis programmes in the country is incredible, and shows our progression from winning the Regional award in 2021

Events

The club received 10 tickets to the first Friday of the Wimbledon Championships; a great opportunity for the students to see the best players in the world!

For the first time post-covid, UBTC organised a tour, this year to Amsterdam The event had nearly 30 players head out to enjoy the sites and take on the local university in a friendly competition - which UBTC won!

Mid-April brought the 24-hour Tennis event and UBTC fundraising for WaterAid led by Fundraising Officer Josh Wierzsycki. Josh played tennis for the whole 24 hours, with players and coaches joining him on court for various slots of time; a big innings of 10 hours was put in overnight by coach Max! It was an excellent event, for a great cause, with UBTC raising £840 for WaterAid; donations are still welcome - via this GoFundMe page

In June we had our Alumni vs UBTC Hobson Cup face-off and, like every year, it did not disappoint The event welcomed 50 past and present players, plus coaches, to compete in tennis, netball and football The event is held in memory of past BUCS team member Jack Hobson, and this year was the first time since its inception (2019) that Jack’s parents and brother attended, which was wonderful

Despite some hard-fought competition both on court and pitch, the Alumni team took home the Cup and remain unbeaten in the event The Hobson Cup remains my favourite event in the UBTC calendar; it sums up the heart and nature of our club and the importance of everyone who has been part of this family. This year we linked the event with the Healthy Minds programme and currently have raised £230.

You can view the Cup lifting ceremony and event photos on the UBTC website, as well as offer a donation, should you wish, to Healthy Minds.

Looking Forward

We have many things to be proud of and to look forward to in the 2023/24 season. Our newly resurfaced back courts are now playable all year round, and will allow all of our home BUCS matches to be played on site

I am over the moon to confirm that we have reintroduced our Women’s 3rds team which we have not had since before Covid The opportunity to get more females competing at this level is both exciting and a responsibility of ours, as a club and programme.

Thanks

It's been a brilliant year and I can not wait to see what is to come in 2023/24. Thanks as ever to the wonderful staff and committee that make everything happen and are an absolute pleasure to work with.

Ali Blackett

Head Coach, Student Performance Tennis

Visit the Club website or follow our progress on Instagram (@uniofbristoltennis)