Girls Tournament Gets The Junior Individual Series Off To A Flying Start

30/09/24: The first of this season's Junior Individual tournaments took place at Highgate yesterday with the girls getting things off to a great start.

Three schools were represented with players from Ipswich, Repton and Mill Hill playing a series of seven timed matches across three courts, with the pairings and opponents changing each time, including the opportunity for everyone to play with or against Karen Hird and Charlotta Cooley, who have been national champions since 2013.

The standard was high all day, with all of the girls improving as the day went on and all adapting well to playing with someone new every time. It meant that the individual scores remained close throughout the day with little to separate the highest scoring player from the lowest scoring player. No one was able to go undefeated throughout the day and no one went without a victory.

In the end, despite the small margins, the four top players faced off in the final with Bri from Repton (1st) and Bella from Ipswich (4th) taking on Meghna from Repton (3rd) and Emily from Ipswich (2nd). An exciting game saw Meghna & Emily take a narrow early lead; Bri & Bella fought hard and looked as though they were about to catch up on several occasions, getting to 8-9 at one stage, before Meghna & Emily finished off in style to win 12-8.

A similar game was played for 3rd/4th place, with Betsy & Rebecca from Ipswich defeating the Ipswich/Mill Hill combination of Carys & Sadie.

This was a really enjoyable and worthwhile afternoon of Fives, with all of the girls involved playing really well and having a great time on court. Hopefully one or two more schools will be able to bring their girls along to next year's event to increase the size of the field.

Our thanks go to Highgate for hosting the day and to the staff and parents who gave up their Sunday to come along and help make it happen.