TENNIS
Exciting progress
The year began with exciting progress for our national cup teams : the U13A and U15A boys and girls made it to the final regional rounds in mid-October . The U15A girls progressed to regional finals finishing 3rd overall , the boys progressed to the final regional round but fell short against two strong Reed ’ s sides , and the U13A girls lost in the final regional round against an outstanding team from Wimbledon High .
In the Lent term , the senior boys cup side ( Year 11 and Sixth Form ) were south east regional finalists , after some consistently good performances in the qualifying rounds .
The beginning of the Summer term saw the boys 1st IV national cup side make it to the second round of the competition . They were an exceptionally young team playing a close fixture against a much older Sandringham School outfit , and our young players showed much resilience despite the overall result . The girls had a more successful run in the national cup , reaching the regional final , but narrowly lost to an exceptional Newstead Wood team with two players already representing at national level .
Over the course of the year , 300 pupils played tennis with over 150 representative fixtures . Saturday fixtures were both enjoyable and successful . A superb group of senior boys were consistently committed to both training and fixtures and this made for a winning season . The girls also had a jubilant season and both sides combined in the second half of term to play some competitive and entertaining mixed doubles against other schools , something that is sure to stay in the fixture calendar for future years !
For younger players , highlights included the U14 , U15 and U16 success at the Independent Schools League , winning in round two against strong tennis schools , while our U13 and U15 girls and boys national cup sides will continue their cup run into the Michaelmas term .
Ray Hayashi and Tatiana Mouzykantskii , Lower Sixth
96 SPORT REVIEW