Tennis: Review for 2008/09

TENNIS
Kent Red Team Champions – J Poole, S Mercer, C Gunter, C Howard
Kent Red Doubles Champions – S Mercer, J Poole
Kent Orange Team Runners-up – E Wadsworth, L Holder, A Gupta, C Henderson
Kent Red Doubles – 3rd – M Holding, C Gunter
Kent Orange Team = 3rd – DL B team - M Hughes, S Gull, O Irwin, L Thompson
Kent Green Team = 3rd – H Kinsey, C Heim, S Hodgkins, A Cassidy
Kent IAPS U11 Doubles – 3rd – H Kinsey, C Heim

Derwent Lodge girls love their tennis! This has been a very successful year for all the tennis teams, and the icing on the cake was to hear the fabulous news that our top player, Mia Smith, has been offered a full time scholarship from the world famous tennis coach Nick Bollettieri, to train at his Tennis Academy in Florida. The last person to be offered this scholarship at such a young age was Maria Sharapova! Mia’s development has been impressive. As a result of the hard work from her coaches outside school, and the support of the LTA and sponsors, she has become one of England’s brightest hopes.
Training starts early at DL, and any of the Year 3’s may choose to join the ‘Early-Bird’ Red Tennis Club. This means getting up early once a week, to be on court for 7.45am. Twenty-five girls took up the challenge in January, where they were divided into boxes and played singles against everyone in their box over two weeks. The girl with the most points would go up to the next box, and the one with the least would go down, and the competition would start again. The ability ranges in the boxes soon evened out, to make matches more stimulating.
By the Summer Term, we were ready to enter the Kent County tournaments, and the teams achieved some impressive results. In the British Schools Tennis Association tournaments, Derwent Lodge won the Mini-Red event. In the Orange tournament, both the A and B teams achieved places in the semi-finals, and the A team lost on points in the final. The Green team had to play without our top player but they also made it to the last four in Kent before being beaten on points. In the Kent Schools Annual Red Doubles Tournament, three pairs from Derwent Lodge finished in the top four in the County, and Sarah Mercer and Jasmine Poole won the title.
So, from grass roots to top player, Derwent Lodge girls continue to enjoy tennis at every level.

Full Colours: A Cassidy, C Heim, S Hodgkins, L Holder, H Kinsey, M smith, E Wadsworth
Half Colours: A Gupta, S Gull, C Henderson, M Hughes

The Schools at Somerhill are members of the Independent Association of Preparatory Schools and are listed in The Good Schools Guide.

The Schools at Somerhill are under the care and control of The Somerhill Charitable Trust Ltd.
Registered in England No. 2331296. Registered Office: Somerhill, Tonbridge, Kent TN11 0NJ.
Registered Charity No. 1002212.

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