TAUNTON Tennis Club hosted a ‘Ticket to Tokyo’ event for wheelchair players.

One of the purposes of the day was to see if they could identify talented players who would be willing and able to dedicate themselves to training in readiness for the Olympics in Tokyo in the year 2020.

The other was to try and find as many people who would simply be willing to ‘have a go’ at wheelchair tennis to see if it suited them.

Club coach Ivor Griffiths said: “We were delighted, eventually, to enjoy the company of ten participants, three of whom were totally new to wheelchair tennis and were of an age most of us saw in the nostalgic dim and distant past.

“Two were seven-year-old girls who are friends at Trinity School in Taunton that we visited in July. Another was a 13-year-old boy from Wells.

“We were joined and ably assisted by Ash Smith, National Performance Development Coach for the Tennis Foundation, and Louise Hunt who is our British No3 female wheelchair player and has a world ranking of 18.

“Participants came from as far away as Helston, Newquay, Plymouth, Yeovil and Crewkerne area.

“We even had one from Spain who comes home when he gets fed up with the warm weather.

“Our hope is that at least one of our attendees, may have been identified as a candidate for the future of British Wheelchair Tennis.”

The day began with a fun warm up session based on competitive mobility races, and then some timed speed challenges to see if players could increase their personal best times after several attempts.

Griffiths added: “By this time, it was obvious from the laughter that all involved, including the four coaches, were in for a very happy day.

“This was followed by three separate technical and tactical hitting sessions followed by fun games.”

For more information about wheelchair tennis contact anna.howe@toneleisure.com (01823-333435) or Ivor Griffiths on 01984-623888, email langleycottage@tiscali.co.uk.