Year 10 Boys Team Tennis National Finals
Saturday & Sunday 5/6th Dec, Bolton Arena
After beating both Millfield School and St Peter’s High School Gloucester at the Regional Finals Claires Court qualified for the Year 10 boys Team Tennis National Finals and were now amongst the last four schools out of over 600 schools from across England, Scotland and Wales who entered the competition back in April when the first rounds initially began. Based on the team's ratings Claires Court were ranked 2nd out of the four schools at the National Finals behind Culford School which is a notoriously strong school for tennis. The National Finals were a round-robin tournament with the squad playing both a doubles and a singles match ach against the three opponents - Lancaster School, Merchiston castle (Scotland) and Culford School.
With over 5,000 clicks on the LTA website from people viewing the results site during the course of the weekend and President of the LTA Cathie Sabin there watching the boys play, this really was a massive achievement from the Claires Court Tennis Squad to even feature at this event.
The Claires Court Tennis Squad of Seb Harris, Seb Tong, Jack Chapman, Nic Goslar and reserve / youngster Freddie Ridout arrived at the impressive Bolton Arena at 8am ready to warm up before their first fixture against Lancaster School. , beginning with the doubles and Claires Court got off to a flying start winning the match in convincing style. (Results as per below)
That afternoon the boys went straight into their next match against Merchiston Castle from Scotland. It was always going to be a closely fought game, but Claires Court claimed the victory after a championship tie break, in which Harris and Chapman played a superb game of doubles, (results as per below).
Leaving the arena on Saturday evening after 11 hours on court, the boys albeit tired were buzzing after the day's results knowing that they had secured at least 2nd place in the National Finals. Sunday’s game was against Culford School who were the no.1 ranked side and Claires Court had nothing to lose nor any pressure to win, it was down to Culford to prove they were the best side there. After a closely fought match (which came right down to the last singles game played by captain of the side Harris) to decide the winner, Culford School beat Claires Court to claim the National Title (results as per below).
A truly fine display of talent by each of the boys, highlights being Goslar coming from 0-4 down to win his singles game vs Merchiston castle, Tong winning all of his matches the entire weekend and lastly; Chapman and doubles star Harris holding their nerve in the Championship Tie Break against Merchiston castle to win 10-5 which would prove to see Claires Court finish in an extremely creditable second place
Results from Match 1 vs Lancaster School:
Doubles 2 pair - Goslar / Chapman 6-2 win
Doubles 1 pair - Harris / Tong 7-5 win
Singles 4 - Goslar 5-7 loss
Singles 3 - Chapman 6-2 win
Singles 2 - Tong 6-3 win
Singles 1 - Harris 3-6 loss
Results from Match 2 vs Merchiston castle, Scotland:
Doubles 2 pair - Goslar / Chapman 0-6 loss
Doubles 1 pair - Harris / Tong 6-1 win
Singles 4 - Goslar 6-4 win (after coming from 0-4 down, an important turning point in the match)
Singles 3 - Chapman 5-7 loss (narrowly missing out after coming from 0-5 down)
Singles 2 - Tong 6-0 win
Singles 1 - Harris 1-6 loss
Championship tie break Harris / Chapman 10-5 win
Results from Match 3 vs Culford School:
Doubles 2 pair - Goslar / Chapman 0-6 loss
Doubles 1 pair - Harris / Tong 7-5 win
Singles 4 - Goslar 0-6 loss
Singles 3 - Chapman 3-6 loss
Singles 2 - Tong 6-2 win
Singles 1 - Harris 2-6 loss
Miss J Cox
Head of PE
Claires Court