After a great season, Pocklington School U13 Girls’ Tennis squad were delighted to represent the school at the Lawn Tennis Association Youth Schools Championship, held in Sunderland last week.
To qualify for the regional final, Second Year pupil Bella Swanborough and Third Year pupils Charley Dear, Briagh Lawrie and Jemima Powell secured a 5-1 win against St Aidan’s School, Harrogate, in the final knockout match on 8 November.
Following this success, the squad accepted the invitation to attend the Regional Finals, held in Sunderland on 10 November. A busy week for the players, who were about to compete at the highest level Pocklington School Girls Junior Tennis had ever reached. The top sixteen teams in the country were all competing, with the top four northern teams challenging each other.
Bella, Charley, Briagh and Jemima rose to the challenge. Pocklington were first drawn against Wilmslow and had a tough start. It was such a close score; the match could have gone either way. After the singles round, Pocklington needed to win both doubles to have a chance of levelling up. Sadly, a few points made the difference, as it had done in the singles so Wilmslow took the win 8 points to 4.
The afternoon saw Pocklington take on Durham School. The girls grew in confidence and played some excellent attacking tennis, both at the back of the court and the net. Aces were a plenty and after the singles, Pocklington were 3-1 up. After completing the doubles, Pocklington took the win 8-4, which placed them third overall in the region for U13 Girls.
Mrs Mortimer, teacher in charge of tennis at Pocklington School commented: “Well done to all! This is an outstanding achievement, not only in reaching this far in the competition for the first time, but also in the way the team conducted themselves on and off the court.”
She continued: "The team were a pleasure to accompany and watch. We look forward to what the school tennis season brings next year!”