U14 Mixed-Doubles Tennis Victory for Cranleigh Students

07 Aug 2018

To end the tennis season, we have a tradition of playing mixed-doubles fixtures on the last Saturday of term. This year, for the first time, a series of invitation mixed-doubles tournaments were set up for the top three pairs from a group of schools. The U14 tournament was held at Epsom College, with Cranleigh, Epsom, Haileybury, Wellington and Sevenoaks taking part. Teams were made up of three pairs, each of whom played one set against the corresponding pair from each of the other teams.

The Cranleigh team looked very strong from the outset, with all three pairs winning convincingly in their first round matches against Epsom. In the second round against Wellington, Cameron Barr and Eliza Wheeler were outstanding, winning 6-0 in the first pair contest. Our second pair, Freddie Moore and Maddie Graham lost a tight match 4-6, but the victory was secured after our third pair, Will Petter and Imogen Pilling, came away with a 6-3 win.

After a short break, when the squad was able to support the Cranleigh athletes competing in the Epsom invitation event taking place just next to the tennis courts, we set up to face Sevenoaks, who had also won their first two rounds. Again, our first pair provided a feast of tennis for the spectators to enjoy, winning 6-0 again. Our second pair put up a good fight, but lost 2-6. So then it was all up to the third pair (by this stage the mathematicians had worked out that victory in the tournament was likely to depend on this match). At 2-0 things were looking good, but a short time later, with energy-levels dropping, we were 2-4 down. However, the determination and discipline returned, and we battled on to a tie-break, and won that convincingly.

With a comfortable three match victory against Haileybury in the final round, Cranleigh were declared winners of the tournament, winning 10 of their 12 sets, closely followed by Sevenoaks as runners-up with 9 sets won.

With the U14B, C and D mixed doubles teams also victorious on the day (in their fixture against Epsom College), it was a great end to the season for the U14 boys and girls.