Tennis Report for the Academic Year 2008-9

Boys’ Tennis
The boys’ tennis teams have had an exceptionally successful season, with clean sweeps of victories over Christ’s Hospital, Lancing College and Eastbourne, in all age groups. In addition, the 1st VI has defeated Worth 6-0, and Hurst 5-1, and drawn against St Bede’s 3-3 in the annual Sussex League Tournament. In this tournament, spread over two weekends early in the season, they were placed second out of the eight Sussex HMC schools that participate.

Our strength in depth has meant that Ardingly has had the luxury of fielding 12 different players in the 1st team this season. This strength has been emphasised by a comprehensive 8-1 victory over Lancing, and a 6-3 victory over Eastbourne for the 2nd VI. The 3rd VI remains unbeaten, with wins against Cranleigh and Christ’s Hospital. There have been many star performers at senior level, but the top four players, Will Phillips, Chris Silk, Freddie Watts and Thibault Bain deserve special mention for their success in the Sussex League.

Tennis throughout the School is in good health: the Under 16s matched the success of the Seniors in defeating Christ’s Hospital (6-0), Worth (5-1), Lancing (4-2) and Eastbourne (6-0) to achieve second place in the Under 16 Sussex League Tournament. The team of James Southwood, Tom Phillips, Adam Roberts and Theo Yang suggests that competition for places at senior level will be tough next year. At the time of writing, the Under 15s remain undefeated in their 8 matches this season, and have won their regional section of the LTA organised “AEGON Cup”, with five straight wins. The team will progress to the knock-out stages in September. '09 In addition, the Under 15s have defeated Christ’s Hospital (7-2), Eastbourne (8-1) and Worth (8-1) in friendlies. Fixtures for the Under 14s have been limited and, although they lost their first match to Cranleigh (6-3) they have since beaten Lancing (6-3) and Christ’s Hospital (7-2). Leo Ko and Sam Phillips deserve particular mention as they are unbeaten as a doubles pair to date. The enthusiasm of the Juniors has been a great encouragement and bodes well for the future of tennis at Ardingly.

Girls’ Tennis
The senior teams have worked hard in their twice weekly training sessions this term. With a squad of nearly 30 girls, we have been able to field four teams on occasions. Many of the matches have been exciting, and the scores in individual games close. Unfortunately, the girls have, too often, lacked the killer instinct at the vital moment!

This year three of the Senior girls, Geraldine Baekelandt, Johanna Buhr and Eva Bongards, have continued to play during their examinations and this has, of course, given the teams greater depth. Most partnerships at this level have been established for a few seasons but one new, fairly successful one, has emerged this year: Sarah Davis and Hannah Butt.

The Remove team (year 10) has remained cheerful and reliable, despite playing some strong teams this term. Jennie Sloane has been adventurous with her choice of shots, and has learnt from her mistakes. Some of the others have made a determined effort to work on their volleying as they realise that this will allow them to win many more points in the future.

The Shell team (year 9) has also been reliable and worked hard to emulate the standard of play of the first couple, Meaghan McConnell and Tess Russell. The group made a successful start to the season, but have then met some stronger teams in the latter half.

Overall, the girls have been positive in training, and reliable with regards to the fixtures. We anticipate that all levels will continue to develop and this will be reflected in future years’ performance.