THE Totally Tennis girls under-11 team, who are also members of The Gazette-sponsored performance squad, played in the finals of the National Junior Club League last week.

Over the last few months, the team has progressed through the Hampshire Round Robin and three knockout regional matches, until they made it to the last four teams in the country.

In the semi-finals they were drawn against the number one seeds Park Langley who had a much stronger team.

TT's Jenny Peebles lost to Hanne Read 0-6, 2-6, Stephanie Catlin lost to Katy Barrett 1-6, 2-6 and Charlotte Beard lost to Sarah Thornley 3-6, 6-3 (5-10).

In the doubles, Catlin and Beard joined up, but lost to Barrett and Thornley, 0-6, 1-6.

In the third and fourth place play-off, the Totally Tennis team played Carisbrooke (Leicester).

Stephanie Catlin fought a hard battle, but lost in the tiebreak to Gina Kothari, TT's Dominique Gilbert lost 0-6, 0-6 to Bianca Pallatt, and Charlotte Beard lost 1-6, 0-6 to Joanna Horne.

Shane Deacon, head coach at Totally Tennis and team captain, said: "It was a great learning experience for the team who were able to watch and compete with some of the best players in the country.

"We've got a younger team so, hopefully, this experience will benefit us next year so we can improve on fourth place in the country.

"They did amazingly well to get there!"