An inspiration to us all

When it comes to energy and enthusiasm, it seems Lucas Town has it by the bucket load! Thongsbridge junior member, Lucas, joined the club just a few months ago and has been training with Nick and fellow wheelchair tennis member Antony. His confidence, skill and rewards are on the up! 2023 has been a big year for Lucas, but here’s a snapshot of his journey from being a little one.

Lucas first tried ‘keepy uppy’ with a table tennis bat and ball and, encouraged by his late Grandad, he worked on developing his hand-eye co-ordination.  Lucas originally tried Framed Football as well as Wheelchair Racing.  His tennis journey, however, began at High School, where four of the students from the Physical Impairment unit went to Longley.  Lucas loved tennis over his other sports and although never pushed to play tennis, he discovered this passion himself and hasn’t looked back since!

After much hard work and commitment to his training, Lucas was selected to be on the GB Development Squad for 2022.  Unfortunately, he didn’t make the programme for 2023 due to a change in the age brackets, which meant Lucas wasn’t quite ready to move up to the older group.  However, unperturbed, he has continued putting in the hours and has been rewarded with an invitation to attend a selection camp in November for the GB under 18 programme for 2024.

Lucas continues to throw himself whole-heartedly into his tournaments and it is paying dividend. Building on last year’s success, winning the ‘Yorkshire County Championships 2022’, he has gone on to retain the title this summer and win many more throughout the season!

From his mum:

“Lucas is really loving working with you (Nick) and this is really helping to push his development and his play and he is loving playing at Thongsbridge!”.

What an inspiration. Well done Lucas, keep up this attitude and you can’t go far wrong. All the best for the coming season from all at the club.