BATCHWOOD tennis prospects have been selected for regional training by the sport s governing body. Roundwood Primary School duo Emily Freeman and Mimi Bland are in the same class on and off the court, having both been selected

BATCHWOOD tennis prospects have been selected for regional training by the sport's governing body.

Roundwood Primary School duo Emily Freeman and Mimi Bland are in the same class on and off the court, having both been selected by the Lawn Tennis Association along with 12 other Batchwood mini performance tennis players, aged seven.

Emily and Mimi have also been selected and the duo already feature on the 'Pathway to Tarbes' tennis programme running at Batchwood Tennis Performance Centre. The programme aims to produce national and international juniors of the future and with 14 already at Regional level, the prospects look good. The girls have played for Herts County already and are delighted to have been selected to attend a regional training day for East Herts in Cambridge this month. They are also both members of Harpenden LTC and part of the successful coaching programme that is in operation there.

Batchwood Head Performance Jon Meredith hailed the work the club is doing to develop the skills of British tennis stars of the future. He said: "We are now renowned across the UK for the strength of our programmes at a young age. All of our youngsters have two individual sessions per week, have regular Fit Minis sessions and are fitness tested. They all regularly compete and last weekend, the girls and boys competed in the county team finals, where Batchwood had three of the eight finalist teams. The girls won the event and the two boy's teams came second and third respectively.

"The key is to keep striving to the next level and increase the player's programmes accordingly. Emily and Mimi have done very well. They are local girls and it displays the excellent community team work between clubs and the High performance centre."

Batchwood High Performance Tennis Centre is provided by St Albans City & District Council and managed in partnership with Leisure Connection.