The Chronicle 682

50 ST EDWARD’S CHRONICLE

Tennis By Matt Strachan, Head of Tennis

Alice Spencer

and Anna West. We made a few changes in the pairings and we ended the season well, winning against some very good sides including Rugby, Pangbourne and St Helen and St Katharine. The side was led brilliantly by Molly Spencer and I want to thank her for all her hard work and wonderful tennis performances with Izzy Hall. Lila Howard and Izzy Hall formed a new pairing after Half Term and they played beautifully together. The girls’ 2nd VI had a challenging season but played very well as a team and showed some great improvement as the term progressed. Circumstances and poor weather meant that they played only four fixtures, winning two and losing two. The girls’ 3rd VI had a tough season too but showed great promise. The Upper Sixth girls Athena Bonnefoy, Sasha Withers Green and Gigi Whipp showed great experience. They played well and it was sad to see them go but it gave many of our new Lower Sixth including Clem Tillette de Clermont-Tonnerre, Holly Hunter, Phoebe Lewis, Lucy Draper and India Holroyd a great chance to show their skills on the tennis court. The U15 girls’ team, coached by Lucy Hamblin-Rooke, showed a great deal of promise and some serious individual talent. When they got the opportunity to play, they were very good. They were led by the dynamic duo of Boo Haigh and Rhianna Bailey-Williams who never lost a single match - quite brilliant! The Shells had a great taste of things to come and put together some impressive matches over the course of the season. They suffered some tough losses but hopefully enjoyed extending their experience of doubles play.

back immediately and played some brilliant tennis over the course of the season. The next fixture was against Malvern girls at home. Our team had reflected on our narrow loss to Bradfield and I was impressed with the girls’ consistency of serve and how clinical their volleys were; they looked strong and confident at the net. Our Tudor Hall game was cancelled so we next played a very competitive fixture against Dean Close whom we narrowly beat 5-4. This was a great fixture with the girls playing in all sorts of weather conditions - including hail at one point! - but it gave us excellent momentum. Half Term approached and we lost key Upper Sixth players Florence Howard and Izzy Rees to exams but we gained Izzy Hall

St Edward’s Tennis Club enjoyed an excellent season with many pupils enjoying their first match in over two years. After a very good pre-season camp on the Nuffield indoor tennis courts, pupils showed great patience and perseverance and I am very pleased with the way they played and represented the school, despite the challenging circumstances. Girls’ Tennis With our first fixtures v Cheltenham College and Oxford High cancelled, we went straight into a full block against a very strong Bradfield side. The girls’ 1st VI found it a tough start as they were short of match practice and narrowly lost. It was a very young team with Jemima D’Arcy and Alice Spencer as our 1st Pair both in the Fifth Form but they bounced

Ziggy Dale