After six months of planning, the first annual schools tennis challenge was launched and has been a roaring success.

School children from across the region were invited to take part in the mini tennis competition that would be the first of many annual competitions hosted by The Tony Blair Sports Foundation. From the onset, the Foundation received a high level of interest and support from local schools and due to this, had to offer places on a first come first served basis. There were 32 lucky schools chosen, all of which providing teams of 8 children, 4 boys and 4 girls to represent their school.

The Foundation announced the idea for the tennis challenge at it's launch last year; with the aim of increasing awareness of the sport and increasing participation of children throughout the region. Tennis is a fast diminishing sport in the North East with only 250 regularly competing juniors in the region. This is particularly low when compared with the 10,800 juniors competing on a regular basis throughout the UK.

The area qualifiers have been a tremendous success with plenty of smiles and laughs from all involved.

Jeanette Pickard, Chief Executive said:

The children have been fantastic and the quality of the tennis played has been particularly good. Some of the children have never played before and the Foundation has given them the opportunity to try something different and exciting. The Foundation is hoping that next year's event will be even bigger and better.

Joanna Cunliffe, the LTA's North East Tennis Development Manager, added:

Tennis is great fun, good for fitness and can be played from 4 to 84! We want to see more youngsters inspired to take up the sport. That's why we're delighted to see so many kids and schools taking part in the new annual Tony Blair Sports Foundation competition. We hope to see them stay involved in tennis throughout the year, whether at school, in the park or at their local club. This will also help us create more North East tennis champions in the future.

The Foundation would like to thank all teachers, coaches and volunteers for their support and would especially like to thank the LTA and Northumbrian Water for providing volunteers and prizes for all the children involved.

The 8 lucky schools going through to the final with the chance of winning the Tony Blair trophy are:

Sele First School
Darras Hall First School
Chandlers Ridge School
Durham Lane
St Oswalds RC Primary
Fatfield Primary
St Godrick School
Sedgefield Hardwick