Boys’ Tennis

The Senior Students Tennis Finals 2019 were held at the impressive Bolton Indoor Tennis Arena, built for the Commonwealth Games in 2002, which houses eight tennis courts under one dome and is only one of four LTA accredited International High Performance Centres in the UK. The Team of Barnaby Baker, Tom Harpin, James Hanson, Charlie Blackburn and Sam Beighton, finished in seventh place. Only eight schools qualify from across Great Britain, out of 128 Schools who entered, for this prestigious event.

The First Team won 6 out of their 7 fixtures played, they won all matches against other Schools and only lost to the men from the David Lloyd Tennis Club who are at the top of Division One in the Men’s Local League. The most notable victories were against the University of York, the Old Peterites and York Tennis Club.

In the National Independent Schools Tennis Championships at Eton College, the 1st IV first round match, in the Youll Cup, was against Repton, who are one of the leading Tennis Schools in the Country. Our first team of Barnaby Baker & Marcus Taylor and Charlie Blackburn & Sam Beighton lost two matches to love. In the Clark Trophy (U19 Plate) we defeated Oakham School in the round of 32, both Barnaby & Marcus and Charlie & Sam won their matches. In the last 16, the St Peter’s team lost by two matches to love to Claremont.

The U15s Boys had their best ever run in the main Eton Competition. In the Thomas Bowl, which featured 77 pairs, the Boys first pair of Toby Baker & Max Marshall had the following pool results: lost to Warwick and won against New Hall, RGS Newcastle 1 and Hampton 2 on Saturday. In so doing, they finished first in their pool. In the round of 32 they faced Hampton 1 on Sunday and won 6 – 1 and 6 – 4. On Monday, Toby & Max faced St George’s (second seeds in the competition). They had two outstanding players, their number one player having a rating of 2.1 and was number 4 in Great Britain last year at U14! Toby and Max went down 6 – 2 and 6 – 1.

“In the Inter-House Tennis Competition Hope House were victorious.”

The 2nd VI played well this season winning two out of their three matches.

The U15 VI had an excellent season winning all six of their matches.

The U14 VI, in their first season of full time tennis, also enjoyed a 100% record and won all six of their fixtures!

In the Inter House Tennis Competition Hope House were victorious.

The Alcuin Cup again attracted a big entry this year of 16 students. There were some great matches throughout the Competition.

The Final was unique this time, as it featured a member of the Third Form for the first time ever! Toby Baker facing last year’s beaten semi-finalist Max Marshall. It was a thrilling and close encounter with many long rallies and hard hitting from the base line. Toby’s powerful serving was a feature in the first set and resulted in him taking that by 6 games to 4. The match was finely balanced at 5 games all in the second set, when Max showed his prowess in winning through by 7 games to 5. The deciding set was too close to call and stood at 2 games all before Max moved up a gear to take the third set by 6 games to 2. The future looks bright with these two young players taking the Competition to new heights.

Caps were awarded to the Captain of Tennis Barnaby Baker and Marcus Taylor for their magnificent contribution to Boys’ Tennis over the years on the National Stage.

Colours were awarded for the first time to Charlie Blackburn, Sam Beighton, James Hanson, Tom Harpin and Max Marshall.

Mr R. G. Shread