Bigger payday awaits road tennis winners

The revival of Barbados’ lone indigenous sport continues.

The Inter-Parish Road Tennis Tournament will be launched on Sunday with the players in line to receive an increase in prize money.

When the National Sports Council held a Press conference at the Ministry of Sport yesterday,  Minister Stephen Lashley disclosed that the winners of the fourth edition of the most popular road tennis tournament in the land would see an increase of over $20 000 in prizes. 

The increase in returns for the players will also see an addition of venues for the fans during the preliminaries, with three new courts being used – Lammings in St Joseph, Superlative in St George and Sargeant’s Village in Christ Church.

The semi-finals are slated for the Barbados Defence Force and The Villages in Coverley, Christ Church.

Although tournament coordinator Philip “Foff” Garner said that finances would determine if the finals were played at Dover, Christ Church, which hosted the first two finals, or Springer Memorial School, where the last finals were held, there are strong suggestions that the finals slated for January 9 and 10 could be contested at the Wildey Gym.

Lashley said that his ministry was moving towards the goal of helping road tennis on its progressive climb towards becoming an international sport. 

The minister added that attempts were being made to set up a home for road tennis at the Wildey Gym and he said the 2015 finals would be broadcast live on television since the live coverage in the past had helped to create a lot of interest locally, regionally and internationally for the sport.

The new edition serves off on Sunday at Olive Drive, The Crane, St Philip, with competition in the six categories of 15 and Under, Under-21, Women, Seniors A, Seniors B and Veterans. Each team will comprise three players with one reserve.

The biggest pay cheques will obviously go to the Seniors A category, with the winners taking $10 500 and the losers $5 000. The B division offers $6 000 to the winners and $3 000 to the losers, the same for the women. 

The Under-21s will compete for $4 000 in gifts from Tropical Computers and $2 000 in prizes from Digicel while those in the 15 and Under category will battle for $500 and $250 in value of gifts. (KB)