IT HAS been an eventful year at Totally Tennis - from the schools programme right through to the performance programme.

As a new year begins, it is the perfect time to take a look back at achievements over the last 12 months.

In February, the Hampshire and Isle of Wight Lawn Tennis Association selected several Totally Tennis juniors to be ball boys and girls at the women's $25,000 international tournament at Southampton. It was an excellent opportunity for the young players to see world-class tennis and rub shoulders with tennis stars.

In the annual Gazette Sports Awards, Totally Tennis head coach Shane Deacon reached the finals of Coach of the Year and the club reached the final phase for Club of the Year - recognition that Totally Tennis provides some of the best sport opportunities in the area.

In March, hundreds of young TT players signed up for the national Bounceathon, the brainchild of the Cliff Richard Tennis Foundation. The local event managed to encourage hundreds of children to raise several hundred pounds for charity by being sponsored to bounce a ball as many times as possible.

After weeks of matches, Kempshott Junior School pipped Preston Candover to the top spot in the Basingstoke Winter Primary Schools' League, with Rucstall finishing third.

May saw the start of a programme for young deaf people in Hampshire, just before the first national deaf awareness week. Totally Tennis joined forces with the Hampshire Deaf Association to provide players from all over the county with the opportunity to play tennis.

Brighton Hill Community College under-16 tennis team won the Basingstoke and District Schools Tennis League for the sixth year running. PE teacher Madeleine Probyn put the success down to "the effective club-school partnership and inspirational squad sessions".

June was the month when four TT teams won the county stage of the National Junior Club League. The under-11 boys and girls, the under-13 boys and under-17 girls progressed in the national event.

The Gazette-sponsored primary schools tournament encouraged more than 50 young hopefuls to represent their school.

Preston Candover won the Year 4 competition, St Marks clinched the Year 5 title and Hatch Warren claimed the Year 6 top spot.

The Gazette-sponsored secondary schools tournament followed in July. Brighton Hill Community College won every event in the tournament.

In August, the second Basingstoke Junior Open had double the entries of the previous year. The under-10 event, in particular, saw closely-contested three-set matches, played in searing August heat.

Adam Flintoff, having secured a scholarship earlier in the year, jetted off to begin a university place in the USA. A Totally Tennis player since he was a young child, he followed in the footsteps of another TT player, Sarah Flood, who is studying successfully in the US.

A new coach, Adam Chadwick, moved here from Newcastle in September. He aims to produce a national player after benefiting from the experience of coaching at the LTA-accredited National Performance Centre.

Dominique Gilbert helped Totally Tennis maintain a record of producing a county champion every year for 13 years, when she won the under-10 girls' title at the Berkshire Closed.

The four TT teams that progressed through the county stage of the National Junior Club League all won their regional stage as well. Two teams went on to reach the last eight in the country.

The Totally Tennis mixed A team won through to the area final of the Peugeot Inter-Club Challenge but lost out to the Hampshire Tennis and Health Club in the final.

In November, Brighton Hill Community College under-13 team won the southern regional finals of the British Schools competition, after overcoming previously-unbeaten Dr Challoners school.

Finally, in December, Totally Tennis director Nigel Long was a finalist in the LTA annual national awards in recognition of his contribution to British tennis.

The icing on the cake was a successful bid to the National Lottery Awards-for-All scheme for the maximum £5,000 grant for schools coaching in 2004.

Sarah Cramer, manager at Totally Tennis, said of the 2003 achievements: "It has been a really great year. And to start the new year with £5,000 to spend in local schools should be a good omen for 2004 as well."