Watch more of our videos on Shots!
and live on Freeview channel 276

The youngsters won the inaugural Jimmy Hill Legacy Award, part of the #ThanksKids Campaign, organised by grateful nurses from the Rise Mental Health Service to recognise acts of kindness during the pandemic by young people in Coventry and Warwickshire.

The Award, given by Coventry City FC in memory of their renowned former player and pundit was one of ten different categories honouring different aspects of service and the Warwickshire boys were chosen from around 500 inspirational groups and individuals, nominated for them.

The squad raised over £2,500 for the NHS while covering around 170 miles with a virtual team run, after the national Inter-County Cup Championship in May, which Warwickshire won last year, was cancelled thanks to the Covid-19 crisis.

The Warwickshire 14 and Under Boys County Cup Tennis squad are celebrating a prestigious accolade, for their highly-successful fund-raising run for the NHS during lockdown.

Despite the disappointment, Ferran Redza, 13, from Warwick, who is nationally ranked in his age-group. came up with the idea of doing something positive as a squad and fundraising for NHS charities.

He and his teammates Connor Checketts and Ollie Roe from Kenilworth, Daniel Garthwaite from Rugby, Yash Bhalkar, Luca Vladau and Sukhraj Malhi from Birmingham, Samuel Sitch from Solihull, their captain and coach Simon Ferguson and Warwick coach Lianne Candappa covered as many miles as they could over the two weekends when the event would have been staged.

Spurring one another on, they ran individually in their home areas uploading their performances to the running app Strava which linked the distances and times to the squad’s Justgiving page.

The boys quickly smashed their target of £500 thanks to numerous donations from their proud supporters and several, including Ferran, the Warwickshire Junior Player of the Year, even ran the equivalent of a marathon over the five days.

.Ferran Redza, who had the idea for the fundraising run, is shown receiving his Warwickshire Junior Player of the Year award earlier this year from Sue Chopra of Warwickshire LTA.

The squad received the Jimmy Hill Legacy trophy together with medals and chocolates from Coventry City legend David Busst who now heads the club’s charity Sky Blues in the Community, at a ceremony via Zoom, which honoured all ten category winners and those shortlisted.

Senior Nurse Nicola Evans, co-founder of the #ThanksKids Awards paid tribute to the squad’s dedication.

“You are proof of how we can achieve great things together,” she said. “You are all so awesome and inspiring – loved how you encouraged everyone to join in.

"Think you could even get Dave Busst to go for a run.”

“We are incredibly proud of our Under 14 boys for their efforts to do something so worthwhile and keep themselves cheerful and active during lockdown,” added Warwickshire LTA Chairman Sherrie Meaking.

“This award is richly deserved and we all found it inspirational to see them announced as the winners alongside so many other generous and thoughtful young people.

"It was really disappointing for them when the Inter-County Cup event was cancelled together with so many other major competitions but I know this has also helped to bind them together as a team and set a great example to players throughout the county.

"We have some outstanding prospects among our juniors and we only hope that they will be back on court and playing matches very soon.”

Young Warwickshire tennis stars celebrate Jimmy Hill award