On Saturday 6th December BLTC hosted their biggest ever junior awards and celebration afternoon.
The club welcomed over 100 juniors and parents to the event, where we celebrated both their on court and off court achievements.
This capped one of the most successful periods in the clubs history.
In 2014 the club held their first awards ceremony at The People’s Park Ballymena, where it was a combined event with 4 junior awards handed out. We had a junior membership of approximately 30 members.
Moving forward 12 years the club now bolsters 31 awards categories for their junior players, with a junior membership totalling over 100 members.
This is a testament to the hard work, dedication and vision of our coaching team, committee representatives and parental support group.
We would like to thank the club championship sponsors HNH Partners and Knox Electrical for sponsoring the junior championships this year.
Many thanks must go to Ben’s Ice-cream Portglenone, Juliano’s Ballymena and Style N Sport Ballymena for the sponsorship vouchers which were given out at the awards and celebration afternoon.
The Corner Bakery Ballymena provided attendees with a superb lunch, which everyone in attendance was very thankful for.
Thank you must be given to Ballymena Academy for the continued use of the tennis course and access to the adjacent centre which allows us to hold events like this.
Finally a massive thank you must be given to our wonderful juniors. This event was to celebrate their achievements.
The junior club captains, Ashton Mui and Catherine MacDonald read out superb speeches, which explained what BLTC has meant to them over the years. It captured the true ethos of the club, which is tennis for everyone.
Imogen Brown created a wonderful poster for the morning, while Stella Brown and her father took all the official club photographs, which are of an incredible high and professional standard.
Please read through the official junior awards programme to see the awards which were given out along with all recipients.
Well done to everyone, we are so proud of all our members.
Please find below a list of some of the incredible junior club achievements this year -
- 22 Juniors competed in a variety of Ulster level competitions this year.
- Lewis Millar and Sofia Jackova won the Co Antrim U18 T100 Boys and Girls Championships
- Sofia and Charlotte Neilly won the T100 Girls Doubles Championships
- Ryan Mui was runner up in the T100 U14 Boys Championships
- Sarah Lyttle and Sophie Cumming RU in the U14 Girls T100 Final
- Seth Knox finished RU in the Boys U14 T100 at CIYMS Tennis Club
- Sofia Jackova finished runner up in the U16/U18 T100 Girls event at Cavehill
- Ashton Mui won the Men’s Singles Ulster Graded Open 2025 at 17 years of age, taking out the 1st 3rd and 8th seeded players.
- 26 Juniors competed in the Belfast and District Juvenile Leagues with 2 14 Teams and 3 U18 Teams.
- U14 Boys finished 2nd in Division 4 and U18 Girls finished second in Division 3.
- 77 BLTC Juniors Competed in out internal Club Championships this year – A Club Record.
- Over 100 of our juniors this year have competed in some form of competition whether that is internal end of month match plays, internal summer league, club champs or external Ulster Tournaments, leagues etc. A club record.
Emma Mezei (Coaches Cup Recipient) -
GO Tennis Donegal (May 2025, Orange) – Won all her matches.
Rathgar Open Red/Orange Girls 2025 – 16 participants split into 4 groups; Emma won all 3 of her group matches.
Ulster TI Kids (May & June 2025, Green, Ballymena) – Finished 3rd in her group of 6.
Tennis 10s UPB Cup, Bucharest – Reached the semifinals after winning all 3 group matches and her quarterfinal.
Little Wing CIYMS Junior T500 (Orange) – Played in the 3rd-place playoff after finishing 2nd in her group.
Featherstone’s Estate Agents Ulster Junior Open 2025 (Tour 1250, Orange) – Champion, winning 5 of her 6 matches.
Ballycastle Junior Tennis Tournament 2025 (Green) – Finished 2nd, winning 2 of her 3 matches.
Ulster Junior Hardcourt Championships 2025 (Orange) – Tournament winner, winning all 5 matches.
David Lloyd Orange Ball – Consolation Winner – Winning 5 of her 7 matches
TI Kids Green Ball Event (Cavehill) 2nd Place
