Tennis
Summer 2005 has been a busy time on the school tennis courts, with matches organised for boys’ teams at U18, U15 and U13 levels. There have also been regular weekly practice sessions for players of any standard in years 7, 8, 9 and 10.
U18
The main focus for this team has been the Glanvill Cup, which is the Schools’ LTA national U18 competition. In the first round we won a close match against St Augustine’s School from Redditch. It was decided on sets (7-6) after the score on rubbers was even at 3-3. We then played against Stoke Park School from Coventry and this time it was a comfortable 4-0 victory. In the third round we had to travel to Leicester to play against The Lancaster School. The result was a 4-2 victory. The final hurdle before reaching the national finals proved to be too difficult, as we were defeated 0-4 by an outstanding team from Bishop Vesey. The four individuals who played against us were the very ones who helped Bishop Vesey become national U15 champions two years ago.
On 18th May we entertained Warwick School, losing the 1st VI fixture 2-7, but winning the 2nd VI match 6-3. There were excellent performances from Nick May, Tom Jarratt, Phil Green, Matthew Gooden, Jack Rawden and Stephen Fraser.
The following represented the School in the Glanvill Cup: Omar Abdel-Mannan, Oliver Parry, Nicholas May, James Ord, Christopher Silman and Philip Green. For most of the season we were deprived of the services of our top player, George Hudson, due to a serious wrist injury. Thankfully he has now made a full recovery.
U15
This team was unbeaten in the league, but unfortunately we had to field a depleted side in the Borough final and we were narrowly defeated by Arden School. The boys who have represented the School so well are:
Oliver Parry, Christopher Silman, Thomas Shiels, Jathan Malik and Thomas Chalkley.
Jathan is still in the Junior School and he deserves great credit for competing so well
against older boys.
The annual match against Bradford GS was held on May 22nd and this year we ran them close, losing by 5-7. Oliver Parry and Chris Silman won their matches and also defeated three Bradford pairs when playing for a Solihull Borough
representative team.
Four players represented the School at the Independent Schools Championships held at Eton in July. They performed very well, with Christopher Silman and Thomas Shiels reaching the 3rd round and Oliver Parry and George Hudson winning the Phillips Cup event.
U13
Many younger boys have enjoyed playing tennis this season and the team has performed well, winning two matches and losing one. Unfortunately, Tudor Grange are very strong in this age group and they look likely to be the Solihull representatives next term.
The following boys have represented the School in league matches: Jack Lucas, William Barber, James Trueman, Stephen Bowland and Patrick Skakel. A friendly fixture was arranged against Warwick School, which enabled other players to play for the school team. It was an enjoyable match with many close sets, but Warwick edged most of them, the result being a 1-5 defeat.
Mr J McGowan