Bishop Stopford Boys Serve Up Some Ace Tennis!

Bishop Stopford Boys travel to Bolton to take part in the AEGON Team Tennis Schools year 10 finals over the weekend.  The team was made up of Nikki Rae, Jack Haworth, Oli Matthews, Joe Sullivan and PE teacher Mr Young.

The first experience of the Schools National Finals proved to be one hurdle too far. Up against schools that have produced former Great Britain No1's Tim Henman and Mark Cox and who offer tennis scholarships to many of the top juniors this country currently has, was just beyond our local boys.

The boys encountered a first round loss against the very strongly rated Millfield players.  The afternoon opposition of Reed’s was almost identical in terms of ratings, so it was backs to the wall again.  The doubles were reasonably close affairs with first pair Nikki and Jack , followed by Joe and Oli both losing 3-6.  Playing at No4, Joe lost his singles, as did Oli playing at No3.  This saw Jack up against GB No2 for 1994 born players, Jathan Malik and he put up a terrific performance before going down 4-6 to the player 2 years older. In the match of the No1's Bishop captain Nikki Rae played the match of his life against GB No6 Jonathan Cornish, and won 6-3.  To beat a player 5 ratings higher is almost unheard of, yet he pulled this remarkable victory off.  This gave the team a nice high for the evening over dinner.
 
Sunday had another early start with team cheerleaders Mrs Sullivan, Mrs Matthews and the whole of the Rae family making sure the boys were ready for action with a 6.00am wake-up call, warm up and practise, ready for a 9.00am start.  Both the doubles were close affairs against Grammar School at Leeds, with the first pair going down 3-6, and the second pair following suit and also losing 3-6.  Joe and Oli again put up a good fight but lost out to the 7.2 rated opposition, but this time Jack Haworth played some aggressive tennis to dispatch James Telford  6-2.  Playing his third match against someone of a significantly higher rating than himself, Nicky Rae followed up the outstanding win of the day on Saturday by beating 5.2 rated player Luke Johnson by 6 games to 4.  To have one win of this magnitude over the weekend would be special, but to follow that up with another was outstanding.
 
To achieve 4th place Nationally against such company was a terrific performance and one the boys will always remember. T he opposition representing the other schools in the finals play more each day than most of the Bishop Stopford boys play in a week.  Mr Young was delighted with the way the boys played and conducted themselves throughout the event.  He added " All the boys should feel immensely proud of their achievements this weekend. The results showed that whatever level you play at, if your attitude and determination is there then you can achieve fantastic things! ".