Honours even at Wellington 2017
Junior Real Tennis Internationals
A series of junior international matches were arranged as part of the run up to the British Junior Championships.
GB v France
Oratory hosted the first, of what it hopes will be, a regular International fixture for Junior Tennis, against France on Thursday 18th August. The event, generously supported by the Dedanists’ Foundation and Oratory School, followed a successful visit to Fontainebleau in April for the French Open Championship and timed specifically to be a preliminary event for the Junior British Open at Queens.
The teams were made up of four juniors on each side ranging from 35-75 handicap and aged 12-16 years with, what turned out to be, 4 high class singles and doubles matches.
First up in the 70s was Gabriel Dougord and Jasper Laidlaw. Jasper is relatively new to the game and a product of the Oratory Junior schools development programme. Oratory with its new pro, Marc Seigneur is developing an active junior development programme with 4 local schools all participating - again supported with grants from The Dedanists’ Foundation. Jasper started a little rusty having not played much in the last month and went 6-0 down in the first set but quickly got into his stride in the second, turning it around to win 6-1 and taking it into a deciding set. Jasper held his nerve despite strong opposition but prevailed after coming through a nail biter to win 6-5 in the third and winning 2-1.
Charlie Enticknap was next against Paul Logerais. Once again tremendous play by both boys saw great end to end exchanges with long rests and 40-40 in every game, however Paul held his nerve to come out on top 2-0.
Third in the 50s was Arthur Quelquejay and Max Wetton from Oratory. Max and Arthur have done battle before in Fontainebleau with Max coming out on top in the Open to become French open Junior champion in April. Today the tables were turned as Max was slightly behind the pace and looking a little jet lagged having got off the plane the day before, fresh from his exploits in Tuxedo Park for the USA Junior Open. Arthur proved the more resilient with a 2-1 victory after a tough 5 all 40 all in the final set.
The final, singles rubber, was Oliver Martyn-Hemphill and Victor Lethullier for the 30s match. A tremendously exciting match saw end to end play to the very highest standard and both boys playing below their handicaps to provide the partisan supporters opportunity for loud support for both players. Again a nail biting third set saw France victorious but with everyone thoroughly entertained.
The doubles was mixed up between the top pairings and all the boys getting two further matches. The balance of handicaps, and the benefit of some court time behind them, saw the matches go even closer with every game closely contested and an honourable draw of 2-2 achieved.
Overall France ran-out narrower winners in a super day that showed the future for Real Tennis is bright. Thanks again to the Oratory for hosting and the Dedanists Foundation for their kind support.
It is hoped, in the future, this can become a three-way event with the USA, who have also sent over a four man team to compete in the British Junior Open and create the opportunity for the juniors to play some great International matches.
GB v USA
On the same day as the GB side were in action against France at the Oratory another GB representative side were taking on the Americans at the brand new Wellington court.
USA were represented by an extremely talented team of juniors who were over, under the guidance of Washington professional, Ivan Ronaldson. Both teams were thrilled to be some of the first ever to play on the new court and all were amazed at the facilities.
The match itself was a thriller and played at a very high standard for such young players. Everything was on the final match which was won by Benedict Yorston (Radley) to level up the score at 2-2 all, an honourable draw!
Results:-
Erik Barker (USA) bt Felix White (GB)
Noah Motz (USA) lost to Vaughan Hamilton (GB)
Chase Motz (USA) bt Henry Stevinson (GB)
Pete Dickinson (USA) lost to Benedict Yorston (GB)
Thanks go out to Dave Stevinson for supplying some excellent kit for the GB team to commemorate the match and to Adam Player at Wellington for excellent marking throughout
As part of this initiative, pupils of Radley College, Oratory School, and Wellington are looking at sending representatives to these major events in 2017 but the hope is a larger contingent of British players or full teams can be sent to both France and USA next year. These initiatives need support and this would also be a tremendous opportunity to attract potential sponsors to help support a GB junior team to travel every other year to these most prestigious events. Interested parties should contact Paul Weaver by email on pweaver@btopenworld.com.
For more information on the good work being done by The Dedanists’ Foundation please visit their website at www.dedanistsfoundation.org
