By the Junior Committee
It’s hard to believe that another year has passed by and we have already completed the 2024 edition of our junior Open. This year we were delighted to host Tour 500 & 100 events In Association with Waterman Kelly Consulting Engineers.
Waterman Kelly are a local civil and structural engineering company who were established here in Cork in the mid 1990’s. The company prides itself on helping to support local communities and especially sporting events that encourage young kids to keep active and healthy.
The Carrigaline Junior Open catered for a wide span of ages ranging from U8 to U18 age groups, including U8, U9 and U10 events. This was a great opportunity for the youngest players to start to compete and build up their skills in a competitive yet fun environment.
As in previous years, we had strong participation from local clubs, but also people travelling from further afield. Sligo, Kildare and Mayo were among some of the other counties so well represented in Carrigaline. The week saw fantastic matches, incredible rallies, dropshots, aces, volleys, smashes ... amazing shots that captivated us for hours. We managed to complete the schedule on time, despite losing almost three days play down to the poor run of weather we have endured.
Our finals day was on Easter Sunday and we saw four winners from Carrigaline Tennis Club win out on the day. Hannah Foley in the Girls Singles U12 100 event, Eric Clarke Waterman in the U12 Boys Doubles with his partner Michael Creedon, Jessie Cunningham with Partner Ava Chandler in Girls U16 doubles and finally Matthew Thompson in the Boys Singles U14 500 event with a hard fought championship tie-break in a really captivating final win over Patrick Power from our neighbours in Rushbrooke.
The club would like to thank all the volunteers who gave up their time during the first week of Easter Holidays to help make this event happen. Coaches Karen Homes and Ashling O’Sullivan, our junior committee, sponsors and all those who did a stint in the Kitchen to make sure our visitors and their parents were fuelled for action. Events like these just cannot happen without the support and help from parents, coaches and volunteers who spent long hours helping out during the tournament.
While not all our juniors won during the week, many played tournament Tennis for the first time, which we hope was a great experience for them and will give them the interest and confidence to enter other tournaments during the year to help put what they learn in coaching classes to the test. We wish all our Juniors the very best for the rest of the term as we look forward to the summer season and hopefully some better weather for all of us to enjoy.