Road tennis to take over Vincy streets

If things go according to plan, road tennis could be the number one sport played here in St Vincent and the Grenadines.

That is the aim of the CEO of the Professional Road Tennis Association of Barbados Dale Clarke. Speaking at the closing and presentation ceremony of the inaugural Capita Financial Nine Mornings Road Tennis Blast at the Calliaqua hard court last Friday morning, Clarke revealed his vision.{{more}}

“We are going to partner with the ministry (Tourism, Sports and Culture) to make road tennis the number one sport in SVG … We are coming to take over with road tennis … It is going to be the number one sport in the next five years,” Clarke promised.

And as part of the process, Clarke had earlier the week, handed over some paddles and balls to Minister of Tourism, Sports and Culture Cecil Mc Kie, to aid in the ministry’s spread of road tennis.

Further unveiling the plans, Clarke revealed, “We are going to sponsor a primary schools’ tournament (2017), so that we can plant the seeds, so that the children can play road tennis at school, so that it could spread to the communities.”

He added that as part of the getting the sport grounded, a coach from Barbados will be sent to work with other coaches here to impart knowledge of road tennis.

Clarke noted that the hosting of the inaugural Road Tennis Blast was the sowing of the seeds.

“We have just been planted the seeds and from the response we got, we see we will be growing a very big tree here… We kept saying inaugural because we gonna be back next year, much bigger and better,” the PRTA CEO stated.

“We want in the next three to five years that we have people coming from Trinidad (and Tobago), Grenada, St Lucia, Martinique, everyone converging here in St Vincent and the Grenadines, for the SVG Road Tennis Blast… We have a product that we believe can stimulate the economies in the region,” Clarke said with conviction.

Road tennis is a sport which is indigenous to Barbados, having started there in the 1930’s.

Reports are that it was started by persons who could not afford or did not have the opportunity to play lawn tennis, as it was known then, hence they simplified the sport and took it to the streets.

Road tennis is played on a flat concrete or asphalt surface, using an eight inch high board that separates the playing area which is 21 feet long and 10 feet wide.(RT)