24/25 June 2023

JSAD’s James Brady advanced well in both singles and doubles at the Shrewsbury Regional Wheelchair Tennis tournament scoring some valuable LTA ranking points and logging some impressive victories along the way.

It was the JSAD’s first visit to a high-level event for nearly 6 years, and there were some familiar faces from the past, but also new opponents who have been establishing themselves in recent years.

Critically, James established himself in the main part of the draw and, while the early losing players were filtered through to a consolation competition, the reward for his early success was an increasingly tough competition against some of most successful payers on the circuit at the moment, Paul Preece (Wales), Birmingham’s Vasileios (“Vaz”) Takis, and third seed Mark Langeveld from Leicester.

Eventually, it was the 3rd seed who ended James’ run in a tightly fought match where Langeveld’s relentless accuracy was impossible to overcome.

Clearly, the main benefit of travelling to such events is testing yourself against the top players and this objective was wholly met.

The support of Jersey Sport was central to this opportunity as is the committed and enthusiastic support of the whole JSAD membership.

But the action was not over for James. In the doubles competition, early wins again saw him progress well with his partner, young rising star Lucas De Gouveia from Bromley.

But once again he ran into Mark Langeveld (with Kevin Lewis). This top-seeded pairing had been winning tournaments regularly in recent months and, despite a stirring

comeback in the latter stages by James and Lucas, they couldn’t be toppled.

James travelled to Shrewsbury with JSAD Chairman, Paul Patterson MBE, and coach, Guy Gilson.

April 2023

Olympic decathlon legend Daley Thompson paid a visit to see JSAD’s wheelchair tennis session at the Caesarean Club. Daley was in the island as a guest of Ben Harvey, from the Strive Health Club (and also JSAD patron).

Daley Thompson has been described as “the greatest all-round athlete the UK has ever produced” and is famous for his dominant gold medal performances in the World, European and European Championships, not to mention two successive Olympic gold medals in Moscow and Los Angeles. 

While watching JSAD tennis star James Brady’s training session, Daley chatted with team manager Alan Ronxin, who was able to talk him through the history of wheelchair tennis in JSAD, some of the characters involved over the years, and the high standards that James has been able to carry into competitions in the UK. Daley was particularly interested in talking to James about his upcoming competition in Shrewsbury and very impressed by the speed and skill James demonstrated around the court.

Coach Guy Gilson was full of enthusiasm. “It was wonderful to be visited by such an inspirational figure and we hope to carry some of his grit and supreme confidence into our competition.”

Daley also took time to find out what the Jersey Special Gym club are up to.

Here you can see James in action on the new courts at the Caesarean Tennis Club, and below that, a detailed look at those new courts.