Another orange tennis tournament for Daniel

Slightly odd event...

There were 12 kids, put into 3 boxes of 4. They were playing best of 3 tie-breaks to 10, rather than 7 as previous tournaments.

Daniel's first game was a bit of an epic: he eventually won 10-6, 7-10, 13-11 but it took over half an hour to complete.Durning this time 2 kids left feeling ill and a 3rd was thrashed in his first match, cried and also went home.

This left the boxes very unbalanced so the referee decided to start playing cross-box matches and not go on to have semis and a final. Upon hearing there would be no overall winner one lad immediately withdrew and left - obviously winning or nothing for him.

As chance would have it, all of Daniel's group stayed and he finished his box off winning the other 2 matches as well: the first 10-1, 10-1, and the last 10-7, 10-6. He was a bit disappointed ther was no medal for him to play for but didn't get upset. He played one more match for fun and then we came home.

I didn't think he served anywhere near as well as at Weybridge - too low with the toss and hitting high to low ... otherwise he played very well.

Tennis - first mini-orange tournament

Just back from Weybridge, where Daniel played in  Surrey Winter County Tournament,  9 & Under Boys Singles. His mini-tennis stage went up from Red to Orange in September and this is the first tournament he's played at that level outside his home club. The matches are longer and on a bigger court. He starts ranked as Orange 4 

I thought Daniel played very well: technically he was definitely as good as any of them but some had a little more court craft and pretty much all were bigger (most were Orange 1 or 2).

He won his first match 7-5 6-7 7-4 against a lad he had beaten before in Red. 

He then got rinsed 1-7 2-7 by a big, strong lad with a powerful serve and nice touch too. One of the other Dad's told me that he won the Surrey championship playing a year above himself last year. 

He won his last match 7-4 7-3 and served a few aces along the way. 

He was 2nd in his group so didn't go through. As we were thanking the referee and leaving he said to Daniel that he liked his attitude on court which was good to hear - there was one kid there who was giving it far too much "come on" and the like and there were tears and tantrums from him and at least one other lad (unfortunately he won his group).

The event was well-run and I found it better than Red as there is less parental involvement in the matches - the boys have to call their own lines and keep their own score. Interestingly Daniel would have won the 3rd game by an even bigger margin if he's called a couple of balls out instead of playing them. Overall was very impressed with how he handled himself.

Daniel selected for North H ants District Under 9 Cricket

Just heard that Daniel has been selected to attend the NHCDA Under 9 Cricket Development centre for a 6 week,12 hour coaching course. The sessions start after Christmas...  he'll be doing a couple of club academy sessions this year.

Cricket Coaching Qualification (UKCC2)

I am on my way to getting my level 2 Cricket Coaching award. The course 4 full-day lessons, 6 half-hour sessions of supported practice and a final assessment.

I'm doing my last lesson Nov 29th and will do the supported practice at my club's winter junior academy (Daniel will be at two of the sessions). All being well, I'll get my final qualification in December or early next year.

Golf Tournament Practice

Daniel is playing in a golf tournament tomorow in Godalming. It's organised by the people who run his golf lessons at school. So we took him to try the course today. He played pretty well (usually 7 per hole) but can't get out of bunkers too well! Let's hope he doesn't go in many tomorrow.

NE Hants U9 Cricket Trials

Daniel went along for trials for NE Hants District Cricket today at Weydon School. He was in with lads a year above him at school. They create a development squad of players who get coaching for 6 weeks in the new year... the first step in County talent identification.

He played really well. Technically he's definitely as good as any of them... he was selected to demonstrate batting and bowling technique. I think he has a good chance of getting in.. we'll find out some time in the next two weeks.

Golf

We played 9 holes at the local par 3 this morning. Daniel was 1-up after 4. I'm going to have to concentrate more as I can't lose to him at golf as he can already beat me at tennis.

Yards	Par	Steve	Daniel
107	3	5	9
152	3	7	7
105	3	4	3
146	3	6	4
140	3	3	5
105	3	5	6
138	3	4	6
100	3	3	6
170	3	3	7
	27	40	53

Daniel player of year award

Daniel won the player of the year award for is under-8s team. As you can see he was very happy:

Steve cricket averages

Well the cricket season is over. In the end I played 10 matches, scored 294 runs at an average of 36.75

Here are the details:

Date	Scores
16/05/2009	20	*	Rowledge CC - 4th XI	vs	The Bourne CC - 2nd XI	view scorecard
23/05/2009	1		Dogmersfield CC - 2nd XI	vs	Rowledge CC - 4th XI	view scorecard
30/05/2009	71		Rowledge CC - 4th XI	vs	Peper Harow CC - 2nd XI	view scorecard
06/06/2009	42		Rowledge CC - 3rd XI	vs	Kingsclere CC - 2nd XI	view scorecard
21/06/2009	14		Rowledge CC - 3rd XI	vs
27/06/2009	35		Rowledge CC - 4th XI	vs	Grayswood CC - 2nd XI	view scorecard
05/07/2009	58		Rowledge Sunday X1	vs	Frensham Sunday XI
11/07/2009	14		Rowledge CC - 4th XI	vs	Cranleigh St Andrews
01/08/2009	15		Rowledge CC - 3rd XI	vs	Compton & C Ford II
29/08/2009	24	*	Rowledge CC - 3rd XI	vs	RNA Sports

Daniel Tennis rating changed

Daniel has moved from red to orange in mini tennis and is now rated "Orange 2". The ratings are explained here: http://www.lta.org.uk/players/juniors/Mini-Tennis-Ratings/

His first orange tournament was last month and he played Jack Draper who is son of the LTA Director and in national squad. Daniel lost 2-1 but apparently played very well.

He will play a few Junior Tour tournaments over the winter on Sundays. To move from Orange 2 to 1 he has to play 30 and win (against orange 2 and 1 rated players) 15 matches.

New blog

I am going to add Daniel's progress in cricket, tennis and football here as well as stuff about my own cricket exploits.