Celebrated its 12th year with a phenomenal 160 children aged from 4 (Reception) to 11 (year 6) from many local Schools Gayhurst, Gerrards Cross C of E, Chalfont St Peter Academy and Infant Schools: Denham Village, Maltmans Green, The Beacon, Thorpe House, Seer Green, St Joseph’s Catholic and welcomed new school Dair House.
Each School entered four players per team in age-groups at year 1, year 2, year 3, year 4 and year 5 & 6 combined. The players were ranked in order of merit and the format was a knock-out draw with losing teams going into bonus draws.
Tennace Director and Head Professional Andy Scholfield organised and ran the event with the help of Tennace coaches Alex Allen, Nick Higginson, Oli Levi and Peter Bresnen and many GXLTC Academy players (ex-competitiors in this event).
The year 1 competition involved eight teams. GXCofE beat Maltmans B on a shoot-out 3-2 but lost in the semi final to a strong Gayhurst A team 4-0 but Alex Martinelli only just lost to Max Vergopoulos 10-9 and Leo Finn lost 10-9 to Zac Holligan. Maltmans Green A team beat Gayhurst B in a closely fought semi-final 3-1. The final results were Aidan Tamberlin beat Chloe Noble 10-6, Sedgia Sekhon squeezed past Alice Atkinson 10-9, Emily Hughes beat Zac Holligan 10-8 but Max Vergopoulos won the decider 10-3 against Millie Cochrane.
The year 2 competition was dominated by a very strong Gayhurst team of Josh Fienberg, Zac Peters, Josh Waldegrave and Veer Sidhu who won all their matches 4-0 against Maltmans Green B, GXCofE and combined Gayhurst / GXCofE team. Dair House entering for the first time notched up their first win against St Joseph’s 3-1.
Top seeds in the year 3 competition Maltmans Green A beat Chalfont St Peter Academy 3-1 in the semi-finals with Millie Shuttle and Anoushka Patel beating Luca Edington and Elijah Harter 10-2 and 10-3. However GXCof E were very strong in the other half beating Chalfont Academy B and Thorpe House both by 3-1, In the final Millie lost a very close match to Zac Hambury 10-9 with her last shot looking like a winner and just missing the line – we needed hawkeye but fortunately the new clay courts show where the ball bounces. At number 1 Alex Thomas beat Anoushka 10-6 and Francesca Schonfeldt lost to Theo MaCann. Harrison Phippen had a walk over. This gave the GXCofE team their third victory in the three years they’ve been playing (they won as year 1 and year 2)
The year 4 tournament had very strong teams entered from GXCofE, Dair house, Maltmans Green (number 1 seeds) and Thorpe House. Maltmans Green A just beat Gayhurst after Helena Ullyatt beat Lucca McCormick 3-1 in the shoot-out after the teams drew 2-2. In the final against GXCofE Georgie Lloyd and Emma Servaes got the girls off to a great start beating Ben Viner and Tate Bowles 10-5 and 10-2. However Oliver Robinson played very consistently to beat County player Shaina Nathwani 10-6 and Shiv Patel at number 1 upset county player Helena Ullyatt to set up a fiercely competitive shoot-out between Shiv and Helena. It was eventually won by Shiv 3-1.
The best ever year 5 and 6 competition involved 12 teams but surprisingly none from Gayhurst. This was played on the seven grass-courts and the players thought they were at Wimbledon. There were upsets to the seeding when GXCofE beat top seeds Maltmans Green A in the second round 3-2 Seb Mellows beating Argia Servaes 3-2 in the shoot-out. They then upset third seeds Thorpe House in the semi-final. After the four matches the tie was at 2-2 but Seb again won the shoot-out watched by over 50 players against Thorpe’s Bjorn Tewes. In the other half GXCofE year 6 team beat strong Maltmans Green year 5 team in the semi final again after a shoot-out; Jacob Mellows beating Aneka Patel 3-1. In the final GXCofE year 6 overcame their younger rivals and Jacob beat Seb in the battle of the Mellows.
THIS CAPPED a fantastic SCHOOL performance by Gerrards Cross Church of England School who for the First time won more age-groups than Gayhurst and Maltmans Green (who have dominated in previous years).
TENNACE Summer Holiday Camps start from Monday July 11th for eight weeks of the School Holidays. Camps are divided by age and standard with 2 to 3 years old attending 9am to 10am, 4 to 5 years old attending 9am to 10.30am; 6 and 7 years old from 10am to 1pm; 8 to 15 years old from 10am to 1pm or 10am to 3pm. There is also the opportunity for Mini-Murrays to have High Intensity training. These Camps have been running very successfully for the last 30 years and have given thousands of children the ‘gift of tennis for life’. To find out more and to apply for a Camp see www.Tennace.com or email Andy@Tennace.com.