PERHAPS outdoor tennis is not the first sport you think of in a week of freezing cold weather, but a ‘pre-season kick-off day’ at Alderley Edge Tennis Club proved to be a huge success on Sunday.

The event, aimed at juniors aged three to 18, was popular.

Almost 70 players got involved on six courts on what turned out to be a day of brilliant sunshine.

And the fun had a fine reward too for a pair who came out on top in the red-ball Quorn Family Tennis Cup played on courts nine, 10 and 12.

In this event, children aged 10 and under partnered with a relation aged over 18, and contested matches on a mini red tennis court.

“The event was played in brilliant spirit with some amazingly long rallies and many hard fought close tie-break games,” said the club’s junior tennis chairman Ruth Samuels.

“It was a great and fun event for all.”

The eventual winners, after two series of round-robin matches, were Katie and Anthony Morrow.

The runners-up were Kit and Hugh Campbell.

The Morrows will now be invited to a Lawn Tennis Association staged grass-court event in June when they will get to play against winners from other clubs.

Various other games and skills sessions were played as a taste of tennis was experienced by younger ones.

Allan Morton, Alderley Edge Tennis Club’s assistant coach was helped out by a number of teenage members in supervising an hour of tennis activities for the tiny tots and mini tennis players.

That was followed by ‘family’ time on court.

Many of the adults and children present elected to stay on court to play for a further hour.

Meanwhile, head coach Stuart Murray ran a separate session for the children in attendance aged 10 and over.

“Stuart’s new ‘swing ball’ game was a great hit,” said Samuels.

“And the other tennis drills were also much enjoyed.”

The speed-gun contest for this group proved to be a victory for Toby Jackson.