Shropshire tennis nets an impressive awards treble

Amy Dannatt and Henry Broadhurst have been selected as Midlands Regional Award winners in the rising star and connecting communities categories respectively.

The success of last November’s ITF World Tennis Tour W100 tournament, hosted by The Shrewsbury Club, has also been recognised after it was chosen as the region’s competition of the year.

It’s more very welcome success for Shropshire tennis following a number of other regional awards to come the county’s way since the prestigious LTA Tennis Awards were launched in 2015.

Shropshire’s former LTA president Cathie Sabin was instrumental in the awards being introduced to highlight and reward the excellent achievements of people, clubs and schools around the country.

This year’s Shropshire winners were initially announced at Tennis Shropshire’s AGM in January.

The county winners then went forward to the next stage, the regional awards for the Midlands, which also featured the county winners in a number of categories from Derbyshire, Hereford & Worcester, Leicestershire, Lincolnshire, Northamptonshire, Nottinghamshire, Staffordshire and Warwickshire. Tennis Shropshire chair Fiona Jones said it’s tremendous recognition for the county to have three regional winners and congratulated them on their outstanding success.

“Considering the population of Shropshire compared to some of the other counties in the region, to come away with three awards is terrific and very pleasing,” said Jones.

“Leicestershire and ourselves each had three winners, with two from Lincolnshire, and one each from Nottinghamshire, Hereford & Worcester, Staffordshire and Warwickshire.

“The award for Henry honours the work that he’s done working with Shropshire schools in particular, with Amy’s award recognising her growing stature as a tournament referee. I am delighted for both of them and it’s an excellent achievement.

“The W100 tournament was a fantastic event. There was so much going on throughout the week alongside the tennis and it was absolutely tremendous, so this is very well deserved recognition for Dave Courteen and The Shrewsbury Club team.”

Dannatt, from The Shrewsbury Club, continues to gain experience as a referee and plays a leading role as an official in ensuring popular events in the Shropshire tennis calendar, including the County Championships and Battle of Shropshire, are such a success.

Broadhurst’s work with the schools’ programme for Tennis Shropshire and The Shrewsbury Club has now been further highlighted by his regional award.

The high-profile W100 tournament, sponsored by Budgen Motors, brought world class women’s tennis to Shropshire, with Czech Republic star Marketa Vondrousova, a former French Open finalist, winning both the singles and doubles titles in Shrewsbury.

Many local volunteers played a key part in the tournament’s success, with a number of other hospitality events held alongside the tennis during an enjoyable week.

The three winners will receive their Midlands Regional Awards during the Rothesay Classic tournament at Birmingham’s Edgbaston Priory Club in June.

They will now go forward to the National LTA Tennis Awards alongside other winners from across England, as well as winners from Tennis Wales and Tennis Scotland, with the national winners to be announced this summer.