Marcus is eight....why? Too old to be wearing spiderman shirts? lol

Are you in Facebook? I have some newer pictures of him playing. He just played the #1 player in the State of Montana at 12s singles and went down to him 6-2, 6-3.....it was a lot closer than anyone thought it would be. Now Montana is a small State, but Marcus is doing well....

Me too...Mark Langley...send me an invite

Thought I would update you on how Matthew is getting on. He turned 7 a couple of weeks ago (wow where did that year go?) and is still mad keen on tennis.

I have asked the Count to post a pic of him getting his winners medal at the final of the Packaging Advantage Masters last month. He has finished with red events now (half size court) and has moved up to Orange (3/4 sized courts) a year early.

Is in the West Sussex Invitational Squad with some really nice players and has a coaching session with Martin Lees Dad every other week so is really showing some promise.

Will keep you posted on how he does in the winter but all results now on LTA site which is good.

Good to hear he is still interested - one of my bugbears is that we don't do enough to get children interested in playing healthy sport.

Find it hard to believe the original post was from July 08 - Can remember reading it at the time.

i hope the pic comes out ok.

Congrats to Matthew

Congratulations to Matthew.  I hope that he goes from strength to strength.  That boy in the blue top is very envious 

Out of interest, seagull, I have read articles about numbers being really down in young boys and girls events.  What is your impression about how numbers are holding up ?

-- Edited by indiana on Monday 5th of October 2009 09:10:31 AM

-- Edited by indiana on Monday 5th of October 2009 09:12:53 AM

A quick update on Matthew

http://www.lta.org.uk/In-Your-Area/Sussex/news/May-10/Alex-Ellison-wins-Tennis-Sussex-Mini-Orange-Winter-Masters-at-West-Worthing-Club/

He played in the end of season masters (winter) at the weekend with the Top 8 players for his age group and came second. Really great effort especially as he was the youngest there.

In his 3 group matches he played (it's best of 3, first to 7 point sets) he won 12-10 in the 3rd, 8-6 in the 3rd, and 7-4 in the 3rd!! As you can see from the article he won the S/F 8-6 in the 3rd!

As you can imagine he did not have a lot left in the tank in the Final. He is still really enjoying it and will be playing Orange for at least another year yet. He has a strange style in that he hardly ever attacks but just runs everything down and frustrates his opponent and never goes near the net! I think once he grows a bit that will change.

He is 4th from the right in the picture.

-- Edited by seagull on Thursday 13th of May 2010 09:22:48 AM

-- Edited by seagull on Thursday 13th of May 2010 12:27:58 PM