Hampton boys start well in the Independent Schools League
The U16, 15 and 14 Hampton Tennis teams began the 2016 tennis season in impressive style this weekend with a strong showing in round one of the Independent Schools League at St George’s College Weybridge. In a group that comprised Radley College, Sevenoaks and St George’s, the Hampton boys fought valiantly to secure a second place finish, losing to St George’s College by just two single sets.
To open the day’s proceedings, the U16 team of Will Page, Harry Vincent, James Hughes and Ben Court secured an impressive 5-1 set victory against Radley before Joss Connell, Fraser Barclay, Gustav Durlind and Heath Whittington managed an equally dominant result in the U15 fixture. With the U14 team of Hamish Macormick, Tim Bird, Josh Culshaw and Theo Radicopoulos losing narrowly to Radley by 4 sets to 2, their winning response against a strong Sevenoaks team provided much impetus for the remaining matches.
After two closely contested fixtures in the U16 and U15 matches against Sevenoaks, seeing both teams draw 3 sets all, the final round pitted Hampton against the hosts. With the schools equal on sets going into the match, the short-set sudden death format proved decisive as the U16 doubles pairing of Harry Vincent and Will Page lost a dramatic match on a sudden death deuce point, losing the set 6-5; and leaving the final standings as St George’s 31, Hampton 29.
Despite missing out on winning the group by the smallest of margins, the boys will nevertheless progress to group 2 in the Final round of the competition and their coach, Mr Dan Phillips, was impressed with their performance:
“Well done to all boys for what was a spirited effort across the board; it is a tremendous start to the Hampton Tennis season. Special praise is reserved for Ben Court who remained unbeaten at number four seed in the U16 singles, and for Joss Connell and Fraser Barclay who maintained a 100% record in every match.”
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