On December 1st Eira and Sofia attended the LTA end of year awards at Broughton and District Tennis Club near Preston. Representing the Northern Aces, they were delighted to be presented with a certificate and trophy for Kiss My Ace International GLTA Tournament as Lancashire Tournament of the Year.
Winning this county-wide accolade is a first for an LGBTQ+ tournament and it recognises not only the quality and amount of tennis played, but the diversity, inclusion, safe-space and fair play-policy that our club works for in everything that we do.
Winning in Lancashire has put us forward to the regional (Northern) finals. The competition will toughen as we go up against many big established LTA tournaments, but we think we can give the big guns a run for their money. In addition to being such an inclusive and diverse event, we had 100 competitors playing a total of 156 matches across 15 categories over 3 full days of competition, despite the first day of dodgy weather!
Last year's winners in the North were The Ilkley Trophy, so we are really up against some great competition, but we are really proud to be representing our GLTA tournament and the Lancashire LTA in the next stages of these national awards.
Huge thanks as always to our volunteers, our participants, and to The Northern (our host venue). Without your support, cooperation and spirit we wouldn't have been nominated! Thanks also to Lancashire Tennis and the LTA panel of judges for recognising our tournament and for giving us the opportunity to shine our LGBTQ+ tennis lights this year.